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40 Under 40 They’re smart, they’re accomplished, they run multimillion-dollar enterprises — and oh, yes, they’re young. Some helm technology companies, others lead financial firms, others are at the top the health-care game. On these pages, meet the faces of the future. (Move over, Mr. Gates.) Spring 2008 , Page 45
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Scot T. Wetzel A third-generation banker, Wetzel has been at the helm of UWB — one of Denver’s largest banks, with $2.2 billion in assets — since December 2005. A Denison University graduate, he was previously president of Compass Bancshares’ Colorado operations and senior vice president for KeyBank in Colorado. In 2005, he led Matrix Bancorp’s recapitalization and transition into United Western. In the fourth quarter of 2007, UWB reported $3 million in income.
Jerry Yang The famous Yahoo cofounder, a Taiwanese immigrant who arrived in California at age 10, has been holding onto his empire with an iron fist. Yang, whose net worth hovers around $2.2 billion, graduated from Stanford with a B.A. and M.S. in electrical engineering; he met his business partner, David Filo, there. Together, the two turned their Internet project into a popular Web portal, which went public in 1996. Before a little company named Google came along, Yahoo was practically synonymous with the Internet. Contrary to what one might expect, Yang has said that Microsoft’s bid to purchase the company has motivated him for whatever lies ahead. “The journey has been anything but boring,” he told the New York Times. “We’re on the cusp of something more interesting as we go forward.”
Mark Zuckerberg By now, of course, Zuckerberg’s story is legendary: Raised in Dobbs Ferry, New York, he was enrolled in Harvard’s class of 2006. In 2003, he and some friends created something called Coursematch, which allowed students to view lists of peers enrolled in the same classes. Another project, Facemash.com, was a kind of “Hot or Not?” for Harvard undergrads. The site was not up long before the Harvard administration took it down, later charging Zuckerberg with violating rules on Internet privacy and intellectual property. He launched Facebook in February 2004; by that summer, it had put down roots on nearly 30 campuses, and Zuckberberg did what every good Web entrepreneur does: He quit school and moved to California. It hasn’t all been smooth sailing; later in 2004, some of his Harvard classmates sued him, claiming he stole their idea, design, business plan and source code for a project called ConnectU. Zuckerberg denied their allegations; the case is pending. Meanwhile, in October 2007, Microsoft (run by that other famous Harvard dropout), purchased a 1.6 percent share in Facebook for $240 million. According to Comscore, Zuckerberg’s dorm-room special, with 66 million active users, is the sixteenth-most-visited site in the U.S. Who needs a college degree?
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