Immigrant Entrepreneur Hall of Fame: Fortune 500
Some of the largest companies and best known brands in the United States were founded by immigrants. A 2011 study concluded that 40 percent of the Fortune 500 were founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants.
Here we have profiled 31 of these immigrant entrepreneurs. They were inventors, financiers, pioneers and philanthropists. Today, the companies they founded collectively produce more than $840 billion in annual revenue.
Alexander Graham Bell
Scotland
AT&T, Verizon founder
Ranked 11 and 15 in the 2012 Fortune 500
James Gamble and William Procter
Ireland and England
Procter & Gamble co-founders
Ranked 27 in the 2012 Fortune 500
Charles Pfizer
Germany
Pfizer Inc. co-founder
Ranked 40 in the 2012 Fortune 500
Daniel Aaron
Germany
Comcast co-founder
Ranked 49 in the 2012 Fortune 500
James L. (J.L.) Kraft
Canada
Kraft Foods founder
Ranked 50 in the 2012 Fortune 500
E. I. du Pont
France
DuPont co-founder
Ranked 72 in the 2012 Fortune 500
Albert Butz
Switzerland
Honeywell International founder
Ranked 77 in the 2012 Fortune 500
Sergey Brin
Russia
Google co-founder
Ranked 73 in the 2012 Fortune 500
Andrew Carnegie
Scotland
TIAA-CREF and United States Steel co-founder
Ranked 88 and 140 in the 2012 Fortune 500
Hugh Chisholm
Canada
International Paper co-founder
Ranked 111 in the 2012 Fortune 500
Alexander and Charles Meston
Scotland
Emerson co-founders
Ranked 120 in the 2012 Fortune 500
Max and Morris Feldberg
Russia
TJX Companies, Inc.
Ranked 125 in the 2012 Fortune 500
Maxwell Kohl
Poland
Kohl’s founder
Ranked 146 in the 2012 Fortune 500
Nigel Morris
England
Capital One Financial co-founder
Ranked 148 in the 2012 Fortune 500
Thomas Alexander Mellon
Ireland
BNY Mellon founder
Ranked 166 in the 2012 Fortune 500
John Pitcairn Jr.
Scotland
PPG Industries founder
Ranked 180 in the 2012 Fortune 500
Nathan Cummings
Canada
Sara Lee co-founder
Ranked 220 in the 2012 Fortune 500
George N. Hatsopoulos
Greece
Thermo Fischer Scientific co-founder
Ranked 225 in 2012 Fortune 500
Pierre Omidyar
France
eBay founder
Ranked 228 in the 2012 Fortune 500
John W. Nordstrom
Sweden
Nordstrom founder
Ranked 242 in the 2012 Fortune 500
Frederick Weyerhäuser
Germany
Weyerhaeuser founder
Ranked 374 in the 2012 Fortune 500
Francisco D’Souza
India
Cognizant co-founder
Ranked 398 in the 2012 Fortune 500
Kiran Patel
Zambia
WellCare Health Plans founder
Ranked 401 in the 2012 Fortune 500
Walter Bowes
England
Pitney Bowes founder
Ranked 461 in the 2012 Fortune 500
Sol Shenk
Russia
Big Lots founder
Ranked 467 in the 2012 Fortune 500
Ivor Royston and Charles Weissman
England and Switzerland
Biogen Idec co-founders
Ranked 476 in the 2012 Fortune 500
Jerry Yang
Taiwan
Yahoo! Inc. co-founder
Ranked 483 in the 2012 Fortune 500
