Top 10 Successful College Dropouts — CEOs

1. Bill Gates

Rank in 2010 Forbes Magazine’s list of World’s Richest People: #2

Estimated Net Worth: $50.0 billion
Company: Microsoft (US)
Bill Gates scored an almost-perfect 1590 (out of 1600) on the SAT and enrolled at Harvard College in
1973. Gates did not have a definite study plan while a student at Harvard and spent a lot of his time using
the school’s computers. In 1975, the MITS Altair 8800 computer was released to the market, paving the
way for the start of the microcomputer revolution. Gates and friend Paul Allen saw this as an opportunity
to start their own software company. They dropped out of Harvard and formed “Micro-Soft.” A year later,
the hyphen in the company name was dropped and the rest was history.
2. Mukesh Ambani

Rank in 2010 Forbes Magazine’s list of World’s Richest People: #4

Estimated Net Worth: $29.0 billion
Company: Reliance Industries (India)
Mukesh is the eldest son of Dhirubhai Ambani, the founder of Reliance Industries, India’s most valuable
company. Mukesh enrolled in the MBA program of Stanford University in 1979 but with 1 and 1/2 years to
go before the end of the program, he decided to drop out and focus on the polyester business of Reliance
Industries. He is currently the Chairman and Managing Director of the company and is the richest man in
Asia and 4th richest in the world with $29 billion net worth.
3. Larry Ellison

Rank in 2010 Forbes Magazine’s list of World’s Richest People: #6

Estimated Net Worth: $28.0 billion
Company: Oracle (US)
Larry Ellison attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign but dropped out at the end of his
second year after his adoptive mother died. He moved to California and studied at the University of
Chicago but stayed there for only one term. He became an employee of Ampex Corporation where he
worked on a database project for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), codenamed “Oracle.” In 1977 he
founded Oracle and started marketing its now-flagship product Oracle Database. By 2007, thirty years
later, Oracle is the third largest software company in the world, next to Microsoft and IBM.
4. Eike Batista

Rank in 2010 Forbes Magazine’s list of World’s Richest People: #8

Estimated Net Worth: $27.0 billion
Company: EBX group (Brazil)
Eike Batista lived in Germany from 1969 to 1980 and studied engineering there at RWTH Aachen
University but dropped out of college without completing his degree. In 1980, he moved back to Brazil and
in 1983, founded the EBX Group, a holding company primarily invested in mining, oil and natural gas. In
2010, he is the richest person in Brazil and the eighth richest worldwide.
5. Amancio Ortega

Rank in 2010 Forbes Magazine’s list of World’s Richest People: #9

Estimated Net Worth: $25.0 billion
Company: Inditex Group, Zara
Son of a railway worker, Amancio Ortega actually never got to go to college because he did not finish
high school. He worked as an errand boy for various shirt stores before opening his first store in 1975.
The company would ultimately become the Inditex Group, currently one of the world’s largest fashion
distributors, operating under several brand names including Zara, Massimo Dutti and Stradivarius. With a
net worth of $25 billion, Ortega is Spain’s richest man.
6. Michael Dell

Rank in 2010 Forbes Magazine’s list of World’s Richest People: #37

Estimated Net Worth: $13.5 billion
Company: Dell Inc.
At a young age, Michael Dell is already an entrepreneur. At the age of 15, he earned $18,000 selling
subscriptions of the newspaper Houston Post. While a pre-med student at the University of Texas Austin,
he started an informal business upgrading computers. He dropped out of college to concentrate on his
company, “Dell Computer Corporation,” whose business model was to sell PCs directly to customers
rather than indirect retail channels. In 1992 at the age of 27, Dell became the youngest CEO to have his
company ranked in the Fortune 500 list of the top corporations.
7. Steve Jobs

Rank in 2010 Forbes Magazine’s list of World’s Richest People: #136

Estimated Net Worth: $5.5 billion
Company: Apple Inc.
Apple Inc. founder and CEO Steve Jobs completed high school in Cupertino, California then enrolled at
Reed College in Portland, Oregon to study physics, literature and poetry. He dropped out after only one
term. In 1976, at the age of 21, he and Steve Wozniak started their own business, the Apple Computer
Company. The company became so successful such that by the age of 25, Jobs was already worth $165
million. After being fired from Apple in 1985 and re-hired in 1996, he remains today as Apple Inc.
Chairman and CEO, with net worth of $5.5 billion.
8. Ralph Lauren

Rank in 2010 Forbes Magazine’s list of World’s Richest People: #173

Estimated Net Worth: $4.6 billion
Company: Polo Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren attended MTA (now known as the Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy) before eventually
graduating from DeWitt Clinton High School in 1957. In MTA Lauren was known by his classmates for
selling ties to fellow students. After high school, he went to the Baruch School of Business and Civic
Administration of the City College of New York (now known as Baruch College) where he studied
business, although he dropped out after two years. He did not attend fashion school, but worked for
Brooks Brothers as a salesman. In 1967, with the financial backing of Norman Hilton, Lauren opened a
necktie store where he also sold ties of his own design, under the label “Polo.”
9. Richard Branson
Rank in 2010 Forbes Magazine’s list of World’s Richest People: #212
Estimated Net Worth: $4.0 billion
Company: Virgin Group
Sir Richard Branson is known for his Virgin Group of Companies which is comprised of more than 400
firms. His first successful business venture was a magazine called Student, which he published and
distributed at the age of 16. In 1972, he opened a chain of record stores, Virgin Records, later known as
Virgin Megastores. The Virgin brand grew rapidly during the 1980′s as he set up Virgin Atlantic Airways
and expanded the Virgin Records music label. Branson suffered from dyslexia and due to poor academic
performance as a student, he did not finish high school.
10. Marck Zuckerberg

Rank in 2010 Forbes Magazine’s list of World’s Richest People: #212

Estimated Net Worth: $4.0 billion
Company: Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg has always enjoyed developing computer programs, especially communication tools
and games. In 1996, he built a software program he called “ZuckNet” which allowed all the computers
between the house and his father’s dental office to communicate by pinging each other. The program was
considered a “primitive” version of AOL’s Instant Messenger, which came out the following year. He
studied psychology and computer science at Harvard University but decided not to continue when his
Facebook website grew in popularity. Zuckerberg was recognized by Time magazine as its “Person of the
Year” in 2010.
Sources: Forbes Magazine, Wikipedia, various online sources