Fortune’s 40 Under 40 Is Dominated By Tech Titans
Fortune Magazine‘s annual 40 Under 40 list, ranking the most influential business people in their 30’s and below, was released this week. While there are some interesting choices that may read as somewhat unexpected – take for instance, UFC fighter and non-DNB Ronda Rousey, who came in at #40 – the assortment for 2015 is, unsurprisingly, dominated by men and women who’ve made their name in the technology space.
There are Patrick (27) and John (25) Collison, the brothers who founded online payment processor Stripe, in at #16, with Girls Who Code founder and CEO Reshma Saujanito at #39 at age 39. The dueling leadership at Uber and Lyft are tied for third. Throw in the requisite representatives from Facebook (Alex Stamos, Chief Security Officer, #21 at 36) and Periscope (Kayvon Beykpour, #27 at 26), and the list truly reinforces what we’ve known to be true for some time now: the tech industry, from Silicon Valley and beyond, is home to some of the sharpest and most dynamic young thinkers in the workforce today.
But, the list does provide some value beyond a PR coup for the leaders who were named to it, namely as an indicator for trends on the cusp of becoming full-blown paradigm shifts. Most notable: the inclusion of WeWork co-founder and CEO Adam Neumann, 36, who tops the list at number one. The man at the helm of the shared workspace chain finds himself there for two reasons: he’s a brand name in the co-working movement that’s gaining steam among millennials in particular and, with his recent decision to hire a full-time in-house janitorial staff who had previously been contractors, thus providing them with benefits and equity, he’s set a precedent for a sticky issue in the “sharing economy.” Naturally, WeWork’s $10 billion valuation didn’t hurt, either.
The editors at Fortune went deeper this year, as well, with polls that delved into the personal preferences of each member on the list. It’s interesting to see, for example, that most honorees named Tesla’s Elon Musk and Howard Schultz of Starbucks as their most admired CEO’s. It’s less vital, perhaps, to know that the favorite TV show among the pool is Mr. Robot and that Taylor Swift, on the list at #6, binge watches reruns of Friends. But, hey – if you don’t know who is influencing the influencers, maybe you don’t know much about them at all.
For the complete 2015 40 Under 40 list, visit Fortune.com.