It’s been a year of ups and downs for the tech industry’s most prominent entrepreneurs.
But today Vanity Fair celebrates many of them in its “The New Establishment” list, an annual ranking of “Silicon Valley hotshots, Hollywood moguls, Wall Street titans, and cultural icons.” It’s no surprise that Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sheryl Sandberg all landed a place in the top 12.
Here are some of the most notable disrupters in this year’s list:
Jeff Bezos
Founder and CEO, Amazon
Bezos only managed to dethrone Bill Gates as the richest man in the world for just a few hours, but he ranked No. 1 on the list for the second consecutive year. Amazon’s stock soared after it bought Whole Foods for $13.7 billion in August. Now, major cities across North America are bidding for the chance to host the retail giant’s new headquarters.
Susan Fowler
In a blog post on her personal website, Fowler chronicled allegations of harassment and retaliation during her employment. That later contributed to the resignation of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. It also sparked a much broader conversation about sexism and harassment in the tech industry.
Mark Zuckerberg
Co-founder and CEO, Facebook
The 33-year-old social media entrepreneur helped Facebook reach an astonishing two billion users this year. Zuckerberg and wife Pricilla Chan pledged to spend $3 billion on preventing, curing, and managing all diseases by the end of the century. He also made headlines after announcing that Facebook would change its ads policies after the company’s alleged connection to the 2016 presidential election.
Tim Cook
CEO, Apple
With a market cap of $800 billion, Apple is on track to becoming a trillion-dollar company within the next year. The giant tech company released its newest iPhone models in September–that included the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X.
Sheryl Sandberg
COO, Facebook
After reportedly turning down Uber’s vacant CEO job earlier this year, the resilient Sandberg allegedly donated $1 million to Planned Parenthood after the president threatened to de-fund the organization.
Elon Musk
Founder, Tesla and SpaceX
Tesla continues to thrive as the company’s market capitalization reaches $63 billion, making it the most valuable car maker in the world. Since unveiling his plans a year ago to send humans to Mars, Musk has since decided on a new goal. By 2022, he plans to land two spacecrafts on Mars.
Patty Jenkins
Director, Wonder Woman
With a $149 million budget, director Patty Jenkins was under a lot of pressure to make history. And that she did: Wonder Woman broke box offices this year with world-wide returns of $813 million.