Forbes 250: America’s greatest innovators

Innovation

Innovation is the grease in the economic engine, the sparkle that keeps culture fresh and the key ingredient in nearly every billion-dollar fortune.

To kick off our yearlong series of special reports celebrating America’s 250th birthday, we present the men and women who best embody that creative spirit. All of them are in the mold of the quintessential American innovator, Thomas Edison. That means they aren’t just inventors; they’re business leaders who bring their breakthroughs to market, transforming entire industries and creating new ones.

To identify the top 250 living innovators (a list of the 250 greatest historic ones will be published tomorrow), we first tapped the expertise of Forbes’ beat reporters, who nominated nearly a thousand candidates. We ran those names by a panel of world-class judges—including Jim Breyer, founder of Breyer capital; tech journalist Kara Swisher; and innovation expert Rita McGrath—who ranked them based on creativity, breadth, engagement, disruption and commercial impact. Then we fed the results into the most revolutionary innovation of our time—artificial intelligence—asking both ChatGPT and Gemini to rank them according to the same criteria. Taking all this into account, Forbes editors then determined the final ranking.

Progress, an inherent innovation corollary, continues. More than one-third of our ranking consists of women and people of color. That’s vastly more than would have appeared, using the same methodology, 50 years ago at America’s bicentennial and surely fewer than will appear at our tricentennial. Capital, however slowly, chases talent, wherever and whoever it is. Every person here is an American citizen, though many weren’t born that way. The United States is a nation of immigrants, and this list reflects that, starting at the very top.

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Forbes 250 America’s Greatest Innovators

#1-50

RANK	NAME	AGE	BIO
#1	Elon Musk	54	Tesla. SpaceX. Neuralink. xAI. The Boring Company. Musk is the only person in history to have founded (or grown from nearly nothing) five companies, each with multibillion-dollar valuations, each in a different industry.
#2	Jeff Bezos	61	Completely upended America’s $7.4 trillion retail industry, then pioneered cloud computing with Amazon Web Services. Now he’s helping NASA return to the moon at Blue Origin and building AI manufacturing systems at Prometheus.
#3	Bill Gates	70	Not content with kickstarting the personal computing revolution and making Microsoft the dominant player in workplace software (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), at age 50 Gates reinvented himself as a generous—and data-driven—philanthropist who helped eradicate polio from India.
#4	George Lucas	81	One of the founding fathers of the modern blockbuster, Lucas also revolutionized movie merchandising, unleashing a never-ending tsunami of Star Wars action figures and Indiana Jones lunch boxes. Through his special effects house Industrial Light & Magic and THX sound outfit, he sold his tools to other moviemakers.
#5	Jensen Huang	62	For years, Nvidia built graphics chips that made computer games pretty and fast. Huang transformed that niche business into the $187 billion (trailing 12-month revenue) beating heart of the AI economy thanks to an early bet on parallel computing.
#6	Sam Altman	40	Read our exclusive profile.
#7	Phil Knight	87	The Nike cofounder revolutionized the design and production of running shoes, but more importantly, he built the world’s best marketing machine, powered by the planet’s best athletes.
#8	Martine Rothblatt	71	The creator of SiriusXM satellite radio. Rothblatt’s biotech-focused second act is even more impressive: United Therapeutics, which she founded in 1996, made medicines that helped save her daughter’s life, and is now developing genetically modified pig organs for human transplant.
#9	Ted Turner	87	In the 1980s, Turner built cable’s first “superstation,” Atlanta’s TBS, on a foundation of Braves baseball and pro wrestling. Then he invented the 24-hour news cycle with CNN before making classic movies cool again with TCM.
#10	Vinod Khosla	70	Sun Microsystems, which Khosla cofounded, was an early pioneer in network computing. He then became a legendary venture capitalist with early bets on risky, complicated tech that produced giants such as Square, DoorDash and OpenAI.
#11	Larry Page	52	Google’s founding CEO co-wrote the search algorithm that changed everything.
#12	Sergey Brin	52	The other Google cofounder’s now back at Alphabet, driving the company’s AI strategy.
#13	Reed Hastings	65	Haven’t seen a video store recently? Thank Netflix.
#14	Marc Andreessen	54	The Netscape cofounder went on to build Silicon Valley’s biggest VC firm.
#15	Larry Ellison	81	Oracle’s empire of databases, a Hawaiian island and now financing his son’s media megalomania.
#16	Judy Faulkner	82	Hand-coded what grew into the dominant electronic health records system.
#17	Jim Sinegal	90	Pioneered warehouse club retail (and cheap hot dogs) at Costco.
#18	Michael Bloomberg	83	Transformed Wall Street data into essential terminals for traders and later a media empire.
#19	Michael Milken	79	Developed the market for high-yield “junk” bonds, powering the 1980s LBO craze.
#20	Diane Greene	70	Her company built virtual computers, paving the path to the cloud.
#21	Andrew Viterbi	90	Qualcomm cofounder wrote the algorithm that makes your phone work.
#22	Brian Chesky	44	Upended the $270 billion American hotel industry with Airbnb.
#23	Judy Estrin	71	Bridged different network types, putting the “inter” in internet.
#24	Thomas Peterffy	81	Computerized Wall Street with automated trades.
#25	Fred Moll	73	The father of the robotic surgery industry.
#26	Henry Samueli	71	The Broadcom founder invented the chips that enabled fast broadband internet.
#27	Bob Metcalfe	79	Invented ethernet and founded 3Com to commercialize it.
#28	Marc Benioff	61	Pioneered “software-as-a-service” at Salesforce.
#29	Steven Spielberg	79	Jaws. E.T. Saving Private Ryan. Jurassic Park. DreamWorks.
#30	Howard Schultz	72	Created modern coffeehouse culture with Starbucks.
#31	Henry Kravis	82	LBO king unsettled clubby Wall Street; infamous for 1988 RJR Nabisco megadeal.
#32	Noubar Afeyan	63	His factory for life science startups has launched more than 100 companies, including Moderna.
#33	Palmer Luckey	33	Commercialized virtual reality with Oculus, then pivoted to military AI.
#34	Harry Stine	84	If you’re eating soy, it’s probably from one of his seeds.
#35	Warren Buffett	95	The guru of value investing.
#36	Rupert Murdoch	94	Sports, tabloids, political polarization, power.
#37	Mark Zuckerberg	41	Arguably, his biggest innovation isn’t Facebook—it’s growth hacking.
#38	George Roberts	82	The “R” in LBO pioneer KKR also helped create venture philanthropy.
#39	Robert Langer	77	Scientific cofounder of more than 40 biotechs, including Covid vaccine maker Moderna.
#40	Ken Griffin	57	His tech-powered firm Citadel executes 25% of U.S. stock trades.
#41	Leroy Hood	87	Turned biology into data science by inventing automated DNA sequencing.
#42	Charles Schwab	88	Discount brokerage prophet who democratized retail investing.
#43	Ed Catmull	80	Pixar cofounder who built the tech—and philosophy—that made Toy Story possible.
#44	Rodney Brooks	71	Inspired by ants, he made the Roomba.
#45	Carl June	72	Discovered how to reprogram immune cells to kill cancer.
#46	Rich Fairbank	75	Data-driven custom credit.
#47	Jim Clark	81	3D graphics, Netscape’s adult in the room and WebMD.
#48	Phillip Sharp	81	Biogen cofounder’s “cut-and-paste” genes enabled modern medicines.
#49	Peter Thiel	58	Silicon Valley’s philosopher king was Facebook’s first outside investor and cofounded PayPal, Palantir, Founder’s Fund; rewards the brightest for skipping college.
#50	Steve Wozniak	75	Apple’s other Steve, his engineering genius underpinned the company’s early success.

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#51-100

RANK	NAME	AGE	BIO
#51	Paul Mockapetris	77	Wrote the software that made “.com” possible.
#52	Dennis Slamon	77	Fought industry skepticism to develop the first targeted cancer drug.
#53	Hamdi Ulukaya	53	His Chobani brand industrialized Greek yogurt.
#54	Arthur Blank	83	Home improvement marries a depot retail warehouse.
#55	Tom Mueller	64	Invented SpaceX’s engines; his own startup is aiming for the moon.
#56	H. Michael Shepard	76	Bioengineered treatments for multiple cancers and autoimmune disorders.
#57	Martin Cooper	97	Invented cellphones, smart antennas and the wireless business model.
#58	David Shaw	74	High frequency trader brought supercomputing to Wall Street and then Big Pharma.
#59	Michael Dell	60	Cut out the middleman in PC sales.
#60	Leonard Kleinrock	91	His “packet-switching” math makes the internet possible.
#61	Craig Venter	79	Beat big government at sequencing the human genome.
#62	Lewis Ranieri	79	Transformed how housing is financed with mortgage-backed securities.
#63	JB Straubel	50	Built batteries that made EVs practical; now recycles them.
#64	Jeff Yass	67	Created a Wall Street trading giant with game theory and poker winnings.
#65	Robert Weinberg	83	Redefined cancer medicine by proving its genetic origin.
#66	Dean Kamen	74	Prolific inventor: wearable chemotherapy pumps, prosthetic arms, the Segway.
#67	Marvin Caruthers	85	Amgen cofounder launched the biotech industry with DNA synthesis invention.
#68	Reid Hoffman	58	Try finding a job without a LinkedIn profile.
#69	Chuck Hull	86	Invented 3D printing and brought it to market.
#70	Therese Tucker	64	Built BlackLine, the industry standard for automating corporate accounting.
#71	Vlad Tenev	38	Robinhood’s no minimum, no-fee trading brought trading to the masses– and created meme stocks.
#72	Fred Luddy	71	Built the default platform for automating IT processes with ServiceNow.
#73	Paul Graham	61	Y Combinator industrialized Silicon Valley seed funding.
#74	Min Kao	77	Garmin cofounder created the consumer GPS ecosystem.
#75	George Church	71	Harvard professor and biotech pioneer cofounded 50-plus companies spanning gene therapy to de-extinction.
#76	Alexander Karp	58	Big data for big brother.
#77	Max Levchin	50	PayPal and Affirm changed how we pay for things online.
#78	Feng Zhang	44	Gene-editing pioneer making new medicines and rapid diagnostic tools.
#79	James Goodnight	82	His SAS standardized data science—before it even existed.
#80	Jan Koum	49	WhatsApp cofounder revolutionized phone messaging.
#81	Larry Fink	73	Built Blackrock into world’s largest investment firm by automating risk management.
#82	David Geffen	82	Without him, there’s no Nirvana, Eagles or Shrek.
#83	Peggy Cherng	78	Her engineering skills made Panda Express a fast-food powerhouse.
#84	Jennifer Doudna	61	Won the Nobel Prize for Crispr gene editing and cofounded nearly a dozen biotechs.
#85	Charles Ergen	72	Satellite television for everyone with Dish; now pivoting to 5G.
#86	Tom Monaghan	88	Domino’s made 30-minute dinner delivery realistic for the majority of Americans.
#87	Sandy Lerner	70	Made today’s internet possible by commercializing the first router.
#88	David Baker	63	Transformed biotechnology from art to engineering with programmable proteins.
#89	George Kurtz	55	CrowdStrike overturned the traditional antivirus software to become industry standard cybersecurity.
#90	Leonard Adleman	80	RSA secured online payments; now he’s building computers with DNA.
#91	Fei-Fei Li	49	Gave AI machine vision.
#92	Robert Johnson	78	Cofounded (and sold) Black Entertainment Television; now commands a vast multi-industry operation.
#93	Jack Dorsey	49	Reimagined social media with Twitter and e-commerce with Square.
#94	Stephen Schwarzman	78	Blackstone transformed the global economy by industrializing private equity.
#95	John Mackey	72	Took organic food out of the farmer’s market with Whole Foods.
#96	Oprah Winfrey	71	Built her media empire on a foundation of self-improvement.
#97	Dario Amodei	43	Architect of safety-focused AI for enterprise customers at Anthropic.
#98	Kevin Systrom	42	Instagram founder did it for the ’gram.
#99	Eric Swanson	65	Invented the retina scanning technology used by modern eye doctors.
#100	Madonna Ciccone	67	Pop culture’s ultimate reinventor also defined ’90s sound with Maverick Records.

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#101-150

RANK	NAME	AGE	BIO
#101	Adrian Krainer	67	He fixed “typos” in DNA, enabling new kinds of medicine.
#102	John Morris	77	Made buying fishing gear a destination experience with Bass Pro.
#103	Lorne Michaels	81	Turned his sketch comedy institution into a Hollywood talent factory.
#104	James Allison	77	Figured out how to unleash the immune system against cancer.
#105	Temple Grandin	78	Improved the efficiency—and humanity— of livestock handling systems.
#106	Jeffery Kelly	65	His company FoldRx cured disease by untangling faulty proteins.
#107	Ray Kurzweil	77	Taught computers how to read.
#108	Napoleone Ferrara	69	Unlocked a single mechanism enabling treatments for cancer and blindness.
#109	Patrick Brown	70	Industrialized genetics with DNA microarrays—and made Impossible burgers.
#110	Kam Ghaffarian	67	In 2024, landed the first American spacecraft on the moon since 1972.
#111	James Fujimoto	68	Invented the laser technology behind Lasik and virtual biopsies.
#112	Carolyn Bertozzi	59	Unlocked chemistry grounding her 12-plus companies’ next-generation cancer treatments.
#113	Brian Druker	70	Designed a platform to build drugs targeting cancer-causing proteins.
#114	Jeffrey Friedman	71	Discovered weight-regulating hormone leptin, ushering in a new medical era.
#115	Frances Arnold	69	Invented the bioengineering that’s upending the petroleum-based chemicals industry.
#116	Thomas Frist Jr.	87	Built the modern hospital era by leveraging economies of scale.
#117	Jack Dangermond	80	Created the GIS technology behind all modern maps.
#118	Arthur Rock	99	Silicon Valley’s O.G. venture capitalist funded Apple, Intel, Xerox.
#119	Pierre Omidyar	58	Digitized the garage sale with eBay.
#120	David Duffield	85	Workday’s software powers the world’s HR departments.
#121	Harold Hamm	80	Used fracking to make America the world’s top oil producer.
#122	Gabe Newell	63	Did to PC games what Netflix did to DVDs.
#123	Sandy Weill	92	Built the first “supermarket for finance” with Citigroup.
#124	Jerry Yang	57	Founded Yahoo, then made early bets on giants like Alibaba.
#125	Tim Sweeney	55	Created the coding engine behind modern video games. And Fortnite.
#126	Bill Gross	81	Transformed institutional bond investing from Grandma’s safe, buy-and-hold bet into an actively managed asset class and built the world’s largest bond fund.
#127	Suma Krishnan	60	Created the first topical gene therapy for skin diseases.
#128	Jay Chaudhry	67	Scaled the zero-trust architecture underpinning modern cybersecurity.
#129	Eric Fossum	68	Invented the tech that made the selfie possible.
#130	David Baszucki	63	Founded Roblox, which lets kids make video games—and money.
#131	Daniel Gilbert	64	Democratized the mortgage industry with online Quicken loans.
#132	Patrick Soon-Shiong	73	Invented better drug delivery and founded a biotech empire.
#133	Dan Shugar	62	Created software that enables solar panels to follow the sun.
#134	Brad Jacobs	69	Did the math that drives the modern trucking industry.
#135	Eric Yuan	55	Zoom calls. ’Nuff said.
#136	Walter Gilbert	93	Engineered the crucial DNA tools behind pharma giant Biogen.
#137	Stanley Lapidus	76	His screening enables you to avoid colonoscopies.
#138	Michael Welsh	77	Decoded cystic fibrosis and genetically engineered minipigs for pharma research.
#139	Craig Mello	65	Developed drugs that can “silence” disease-causing genes.
#140	Mark Cuban	67	The shark first built the streaming pioneer Broadcast.com; now he makes affordable drugs.
#141	Israel Englander	77	Leveraged the “wisdom of crowds” with a multi-team hedge fund.
#142	Jony Ive	58	Designed the iPod and the iPhone. Now trying the same for AI.
#143	Craig Newmark	73	Craigslist.
#144	Eric Smidt	66	Access to professional-grade tools at Harbor Freight.
#145	Tony Xu	41	Thanks to DoorDash, nearly every restaurant now delivers.
#146	William Kaelin	68	Discovered how cancer cells “breathe”— and how to choke them.
#147	Dustin Moskovitz	41	Designed Facebook’s early tech and built workplace powerhouse Asana.
#148	Robert Pera	47	Built enterprise telecom giant Ubiquiti Networks—without a sales department.
#149	Tony Fadell	56	Designed the iPod’s wheel and invented Nest’s smart thermostat.
#150	Brian Armstrong	42	Coinbase, his one-stop exchange, mainstreamed crypto.

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#151-200

RANK	NAME	AGE	BIO
#151	John Tu	84	Co-invented modern RAM computer memory and still runs Kingston from a cubicle.
#152	David Sun	74	Co-invented modern RAM and still walks Kingston’s factory floor.
#153	Barry Diller	83	Invented made-for-TV movies. Created Fox network. Runs Expedia.
#154	Xiaowei Zhuang	53	Commercialized visualization tools used to map and cure disease.
#155	Neha Narkhede	41	Built data infrastructure for an AI-enabled internet.
#156	Carl Icahn	89	Shook up complacent companies with hostile takeovers and shareholder activism.
#157	Bill Franke	88	Made flying affordable by unbundling airfare from comforts like leg room.
#158	Mitchell Hashimoto	36	Developed the standard tools programmers use on the cloud.
#159	Timothy Springer	77	Discovered immune “keys” to fight disease and cofounded Moderna.
#160	Daphne Koller	57	Founded education giant Coursera and AI drug discoverer Insitro.
#161	Sangeeta Bhatia	57	Brought microchip tech to biology for safer drug discovery.
#162	Mitch Kapor	75	Designed Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet software, then made early bets on Uber and Asana.
#163	Sheila Johnson	76	Cofounded Black Entertainment Television, built its programming strategy, then pivoted to hotels.
#164	Yann LeCun	65	Gave computers “eyes” and, with his new venture, common sense.
#165	Andrew Ng	49	Built unsupervised machine learning at Google, democratized education with Coursera.
#166	Zach Perret	38	Laid the plumbing connecting fintechs to traditional banks with Plaid.
#167	Nina Vaca	54	Pinnacle transformed IT staffing with custom tech and a global reach.
#168	Drew Weissman	66	Nobel for mRNA vaccines; now tackling autoimmune disorders.
#169	Katalin Karikó	71	Nobel for mRNA vaccines; now applying them to heart disease and more.
#170	Jay Adelson	55	Built data center giant Equinix after pioneering social media at Digg.
#171	Len Bosack	73	The Cisco cofounder is now focused on next-generation networking.
#172	Jeff Hawkins	68	Without Hawkins there’s no Palm Pilot, Blackberry or iPhone.
#173	Lonnie Johnson	76	NASA engineer turned Super Soaker inventor turned green energy pioneer.
#174	Jed McCaleb	51	Created the first bitcoin exchange. Now he’s building space stations.
#175	Andrew Weinreich	57	Patented the first social network; then made self-improvement apps.
#176	Whitney Wolfe Herd	36	Revolutionized dating apps twice with Tinder and then Bumble.
#177	Aman Narang	43	Reinvented the restaurant check with Toast.
#178	Fred Ramsdell	65	Discovered genetic “switch” that cures certain autoimmune disorders.
#179	Thomas Südhof	70	His Nobel-winning brain discoveries underpin several multibillion-dollar biotechs including Reata Pharmaceuticals.
#180	Adam Foroughi	45	Designed AppLovin, the AI-powered adtech giant behind the app economy.
#181	Brian Kobilka	70	His cellular maps enable drugs to be designed, not discovered.
#182	David Walt	72	Built the scientific foundation of $23 billion sequencing giant Illumina.
#183	Baiju Bhatt	41	Robinhood cofounder is now working on space-based solar power.
#184	Steve Cohen	69	New York Mets owner and data-driven, multi-manager hedge fund pioneer.
#185	Howard Marks	79	Transformed risky debt investing into a market-stabilizing—and lucrative—proposition.
#186	Brian Acton	53	At WhatsApp, then Signal, he brought secure messaging to everyone.
#187	Yet-Ming Chiang	67	MIT prof making heavy industry greener—from energy to cement.
#188	Peter Diamandis	64	The commercial space pioneer is catalyzing innovation with XPrize.
#189	Ray Ozzie	70	Pioneered digital collaboration. Built Microsoft’s cloud. Leads IoT utility Blues.
#190	Shonda Rhimes	56	TV queen behind Scandal, Bridgerton and Grey’s Anatomy turned her hits into a multiplatform production powerhouse.
#191	James Park	49	Revolutionized exercise with Fitbit.
#192	Ralph Lauren	86	A fashion empire of aspirational, patriotic branding.
#193	Lewis Cantley	76	Fights cancer by starving tumors.
#194	Kate Ryder	42	Founded Maven Clinic, the telehealth giant dedicated to women’s health.
#195	David Booth	80	Turned the efficient market hypothesis into a practical investing tool.
#196	Edwin Chen	38	Bootstrapped Surge AI, which recruits human experts to train AI models.
#197	Kevin Plank	53	The Under Armour founder changed the fabric of athletic wear.
#198	RJ Scaringe	43	With Rivian, he added the rugged adventure category for EVs.
#199	Sara Blakely	54	Invented Spanx and made it a household name.
#200	Alexandr Wang	29	Built machine learning infrastructure at Scale; now leads Meta’s AI.

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#201-250

RANK	NAME	AGE	BIO
#201	Bran Ferren	73	Provides “innovation as a service” for giants including GM and Boeing.
#202	Shan Sinha	47	The architect of cloud collaboration now builds health care safety devices.
#203	Robert Lefkowitz	82	Cofounded Septerna to turn his Nobel-winning research into medicine.
#204	Jack Szostak	73	Pioneered biotech for heart disease treatments.
#205	Katrina Lake	43	The Stitch Fix founder brought personal styling to the masses.
#206	John Schiller	73	Helped create HPV vaccines, causing cervical cancer rates to plummet.
#207	Moungi Bawendi	64	Supersharp modern TVs and medical images depend on his “quantum dots.”
#208	Billie Jean King	82	Catalyzed women’s professional sports with the Women’s Tennis Association.
#209	Shahid Khan	75	Constructed a multi-industry empire on his one-piece car bumper.
#210	Yvon Chouinard	87	Invented a new corporate structure ensuring Patagonia protects the environment.
#211	Kay Koplovitz	80	Architect of the modern cable station business model with USA Network.
#212	Hamid Moghadam	69	Saw the e-commerce boom coming and built its logistics infrastructure.
#213	Daniela Amodei	38	The business-minded cofounder behind safety-focused AI giant Anthropic.
#214	Michael Sabel	59	His construction strategy made America the dominant natural gas exporter.
#215	David Steward	74	Transformed tech supply chain management.
#216	Evan Spiegel	35	Innovation spawns imitation; Snap’s competitors all have features it pioneered.
#217	Luis von Ahn	47	He proved you’re not a robot; now gamifies language at Duolingo.
#218	Kris Jenner	70	The “momager” metamorphosed reality TV fame into a business empire to the benefit of internet influencers everywhere.
#219	Thai Lee	67	Undercut her IT competitors by operating without costly warehouses.
#220	Dan Bricklin	74	Invented the electronic spreadsheet.
#221	Paul Judge	48	He fought cyberfraud in robocalls and email. Today it’s deepfakes.
#222	John Carmack	55	Built the early 3D graphics software that underlies most modern video games.
#223	Jerry Jones	83	Dallas Cowboys owner brought free-market principles to the NFL business model.
#224	Mira Murati	37	Former OpenAI CTO’s company builds tools for collaborative AI development.
#225	Jimmy Chen	38	Digitizing America’s social safety net.
#226	Tyler Perry	56	Transformed the movie studio model with his unified production strategy.
#227	Doris Fisher	94	Founded The Gap and spun it into a specialty retail empire.
#228	Chad Hurley	48	YouTube’s founding CEO is now trying to gamify sports media.
#229	Rick Kittles	59	Tracing genetic ancestry years before 23andMe.
#230	Naval Ravikant	51	The people’s venture capital with AngelList.
#231	Hugh McColl	90	Before him, most banks operated only in single states.
#232	Cathie Wood	70	Pioneered fully transparent, actively managed ETFs focused on disruptive tech.
#233	Jim Koch	76	Popularized craft beer with Samuel Adams.
#234	Lynn Jurich	46	Solar-energy-as-a-service.
#235	Shiv Rao	46	AI pioneer building virtual helpers to rescue doctors from paperwork.
#236	Chris Larsen	65	Blockchain for bank transactions with Ripple.
#237	Donna Dubinsky	71	Laid the foundation for the smartphone.
#238	Shivani Siroya	43	Disrupted lending by using smartphone data to better determine creditworthiness.
#239	Janice Bryant Howroyd	73	Redefined staffing with data.
#240	Peter Lynch	81	Some actively managed mutual funds can beat the market.
#241	Limor Fried	46	Empowered a generation of “makers” with her open-source hardware.
#242	Roberta Williams	72	Introduced narrative storytelling to video games with Sierra On-Line.
#243	Michael Rosbash	81	Decoded the biological clock to revolutionize sleep and precision medicine.
#244	Caterina Fake	56	Kicked off Web 2.0 with Flickr; now promotes ethical tech.
#245	Calvin Klein	83	Turned jeans and underwear into high fashion.
#246	Lisa Lindahl	77	The inventor of the sports bra opened up women’s athletic apparel.
#247	Ryan Petersen	44	Created a digital operating system for global logistics with Flexport.
#248	Robert Rodriguez	57	His digital “one-man-band” film production style revolutionized indie movies.
#249	Marian Croak	70	Developed the digital infrastructure to make internet voice and video calls possible.
#250	Taylor Swift	36	Became a billionaire solely from music with Rockefeller-style vertical integration.

Credits

Edited by: Alex Knapp and Michael Noer

Innovator 250 Judges: Jim Breyer, founder, Breyer Capital; Ken Frazier, former CEO, Merck; Sonia Gardner, cofounder, Avenue Capital Group; Monica Jones, CEO, National Inventors Hall of Fame; Rich Karlgaard, former publisher, Forbes; Michael Kitces, head of planning strategy, Focus Partners Wealth; Mike Mayo, managing director, Wells Fargo Securities; Rita McGrath, academic director in executive education, Columbia Business School; Katie Rae, managing partner, Engine Ventures; Kara Swisher, podcaster and editor at large, New York magazine; Josh Wolfe, cofounder, Lux Capital.

Innovator 250 reported by: Asia Alexander, Dan Alexander, Emily Baker-White, Matt Craig, Amy Feldman, Maria Gracia Santillana Linares, Zoya Hasan, Jessica Jacolbe, Jeff Kauflin, Sergei Klebnikov, Brett Knight, Brandon Kochkodin, Luisa Kroll, Randall Lane, Phoebe Liu, Katherine Love, Iain Martin, Simone Melvin, Janet Novack, Alan Ohnsman, John Paczkowski, Matt Schifrin, Katharine Schwab, Michael Solomon, Chloe Sorvino, Giacomo Tognini, Anna Tong, Hank Tucker and Will Yakowicz.

Editorial Operations: Justin Conklin, Francesca Walton

Creative Director: Alicia Hallett-Chan

Director of Photography: Robyn Selman

Art and Design Direction: Fernando Capeto

Art Director, Editorial Operations: Charles Brucaliere

Editorial Design: Philip Smith, Yunjia Yuan, Macy Sinreich

Photo Research: Gail Toivanen

Product Enablement Lead: Juman Nidal

Product: Traci Kalamajka, Sophie Richards

Product Design Adrienne Michalski, Sara Amato

Engineering: Tay Buley, Diab Al Sadi, Ahmad Abdelraheem, Ahmad Alshawakri

QA: Gevorg Arakelyan, Kristine Karapetyan

Photo credits: Arthur Blank by Martin Schoeller, Bill Gates by Martin Schoeller, Billie Jean King by Fred Mullane/Getty Images, Charles Schwab by Martin Schoeller, David Geffen by Martin Schoeller, Edwin Chen by Guerin Blask for Forbes, Elon Musk by Martin Schoeller, George Lucas by Jamel Toppin, Harold Hamm by Ethan Pines for Forbes, Jack Dorsey by Krishna Shenoi for Forbes, Jennifer Doudna by Cody Pickens for Forbes, Jony Ive by David Sime/Trunk Archive, Judy Faulkner by Guerin Blask for Forbes, Katalin Karikó by Lia Clay Miller/Trunk Archive, Kris Jenner by Rebecca Miller for Forbes, Larry Fink by Richard Phibbs/Trunk Archive, Madonna by Arno for Forbes, Marc Benioff by Guerin Blask/August, Mark Zuckerberg by Guerin Blask for Forbes, Martine Rothblatt by Martin Schoeller, Noubar Afeyan by Michael Prince for Forbes, Oprah Winfrey by Krishna Shenoi for Forbes, Patrick Soon-Shiong by Ethan Pines for Forbes, Pierre Omidyar by Lina Jaradat for Forbes, RJ Scaringe by Ethan Pines for Forbes, Sam Altman by Cody Pickens for Forbes, Sheila Johnson by Jonathan Kozowyk for Forbes, Shonda Rhimes by Jamel Toppin for Forbes, Steve Wozniak by Lina Jaradat for Forbes, Steven Spielberg by Chantal Anderson/Trunk Archive, Suma Krishnan by Jamel Toppin for Forbes, Vinod Khosla by Guerin Blask for Forbes, Vlad Tenev by Guerin Blask for Forbes, Whitney Wolfe Herd by Arno for Forbes.

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This story was originally published on forbes.com and all figures are in USD.