Michael Dell

Michael Dell, born in February 1965, is the chairman and chief executive officer of Dell, the company he founded in 1984 with $1,000 and an unprecedented idea - to sell computer systems directly to customers. The company employs approximately 44,300 team members worldwide and reported revenues of $39.7 billion for the past four quarters.

Dell is a premier provider of computing products and services to the world's largest corporations, including many of the companies on the Fortune 500. With the addition of Dell to this list in 1992, Mr. Dell became the youngest CEO of a company ever to earn a ranking on the Fortune 500 and is now the longest-tenured CEO in the computer industry. The company currently ranks No. 4 on Fortune magazine's "Most Admired" lists, both globally and in the United States, and in 2003 was named among the top 10 most trusted and respected companies by a Wall Street Journal poll.

Mr. Dell has been honored many times for his visionary leadership, including in 2003 being named one of the top-ten most powerful people in business by Fortune magazine, the fourth most respected world leader by the Financial Times and the best CEO in the I/T hardware