Business Leaders

A power broker is an individual who is able to influence the decisions of other people or parties, usually through their personal and professional connections rather than through public means. A power broker is typically an industry insider who is familiar with other important individuals and groups that the average person isn’t familiar with. Power brokers are able to use these networks to exert influence or make decisions.

Although the term principal can have different meanings by industry or business, when it comes to business leadership, a principal often holds a significant role. Generally, though, in almost every circumstance, the main function is to manage relationships and wield influence. While some principals at large companies may handle client and business relationships, as well as develop the mission and strategic vision for the firm, for smaller companies, the president, CEO, owner, and principal are often the same person.

The media industry covers a wide variety of areas—advertising, broadcasting and networking, news, print and publication, digital, recording, and motion pictures. Based on revenue and market capitalization, the world’s top media companies today are Netflix, Walt Disney, Comcast, AT&T, Sony, AT&T, Thomson Reuters, ViacomCBS, Fox, and Dish.

Some business leaders are famous for their criminal activity, like Michael Milken, the junk bond king who helped companies raise money for mergers and acquisitions by selling junk bonds in the 1980s. He was eventually accused of insider trading. Or Richard Whitney, president of the New York Stock Exchange from 1930 to 1935 and who famously played blue-chip stocks and penny stocks, began embezzling to continue living his lavish lifestyle and cover his losses.

Traders are people who attempt to analyze trading activity and move their money accordingly in an attempt to take advantage of trends. It’s not recommended that the average investor attempt this, and it’s rare to make it big by trading. But some people have made such spectacular trades that their decisions have resulted in an extreme profit and landed them at the top of the trading game. Today, the top trading leaders are Paul Tudor Jones who shorted the 1987 stock market crash, George Soros who shorted the value of the British pound, and John Paulson who shorted the real estate market that caused the Great Recession, making billions while the global economy floundered.