Laureates 1975–present

From 1975 to 2009, the Business Hall of Fame inducted 247 laureates. Some were founders of successful companies; others were CEOs, publishers, or firsts in their fields. All served as role models for JA students.

In the years since the original Business Hall of Fame launched, both JA and the landscape of business have evolved. So, too, has the Global Business Hall of Fame. Our new laureates are more reflective of our global reach, of the makeup of JA students, and of the business world today, including a commitment to select women as half of our laureates, as well as ensuring more representation from countries around the world and from diverse industries. The Global Business Hall of Fame also focuses on business as a global force for good, prioritizing nominees who are working toward the global good.

  • William M. Allen, The Boeing Co.

    Stephen D. Bechtel, Sr., Bechtel Group, Inc.

    William Blackie, Caterpillar Tractor Co.

    Andrew Carnegie, Carnegie Steel Co.

    Harry B. Cunningham, Kmart Corp.

    Arthur V. Davis, ALCOA

    Walter E. Disney, The Walt Disney Co.

    Georges F. Doriot, American R&D Corp.

    Donald W. Douglas, McDonnell Douglas

    George Eastman, Eastman Kodak

    Thomas A. Edison, Inventor

    Henry Ford, Ford Motor Co.

    Benjamin Franklin, Inventor & Statesman

    Roswell Garst, Garst Seed Co.

    A.P. Giannini, BankAmerica

    Florence N. Graham, Elizabeth Arden Inc.

    Walter A. Haas, Levi Strauss & Co.

    Joyce C. Hall, Hallmark Cards, Inc.

    Henry J. Heinz, H.J. Heinz Co.

    Conrad N. Hilton, Hilton Hotels Corp.

    James J. Hill, Railroads

    J. Erik Jonsson, Texas Instruments

    Henry J. Kaiser, Kaiser Enterprises

    Albert D. Lasker, Lord & Thomas Advertising

    Royal Little, Textron Corp.

    Francis C. Lowell, Pioneer Industrialist

    Henry R. Luce, Time Inc.

    Ian K. MacGregor, AMAX

    John J. McCloy, Chase Manhattan Bank

    Cyrus H. McCormick, Inventor, Businessman

    Charles E. Merrill, Merrill Lynch

    Joseph I. Miller, Cummins Engine Co.

    George S. Moore, Citibank

    J. Pierpont Morgan, Financier

    David M. Ogilvy, Ogilvy & Mather

    John H. Patterson, NCR

    James C. Penney, J.C. Penney Co., Inc.

    William C. Procter, Procter & Gamble Co.

    Monroe J. Rathbone, Standard Oil of NJ

    J.D. Rockefeller Sr., Standard Oil Co. (NJ)

    David Sarnoff, RCA/NBC

    Alfred P. Sloan Jr, General Motors

    Cyrus R. Smith, American Airlines

    Alexander T. Stewart, A.T. Stewart & Co.

    J. Edgar Thomson, Pennsylvania Railroad

    Theodore N. Vail, AT&T

    Cornelius Vanderbilt, Railroads

    George Washington, Statesman

    Thomas J. Watson Jr., IBM Corp.

    Frederick Weyerhaeuser, Weyerhaeuser Co

    Eli Whitney, Pioneer Industrialist

    Robert E. Wood, Sears, Roebuck & Co.

    Robert W. Woodruff, The Coca-Cola Co.

  • Robert O. Anderson, ARCO

    Leo H. Baekeland, Union Carbide Corp.

    William M. Batten, J.C. Penney Co., Inc.

    Arnold O. Beckman, SmithKline Beckman

    Olive A. Beech, Beech Aircraft Corp.

    William E. Boeing, The Boeing Co.

    Marvin Bower, McKinsey & Co.

    Edward E. Carlson, United Airlines, Inc.

    Willis H. Carrier, Carrier Corp.

    Walter P. Chrysler, Chrysler Corp

    Frederick C. Crawford, TRW, Inc.

    Trammell Crow, Trammel Crow Co.

    John Deere, Deere & Co.

    Pierre S. duPont, DuPont

    Cyrus W. Field, Transatlantic Cable

    Harvey S. Firestone, Firestone Tire & Rubber

    Henry M. Flagler, Florida Developer

    King C. Gillette, Gillette Co.

    Leonard H. Goldenson, Capital Cities/ABC Inc.

    Benjamin Graham, Economist/GEICO

    George S. Halas, Chicago Bears

    Edward H. Harriman, Union Pacific RR

    Milton S. Hershey, Hershey Foods

    William R. Hewlett, Hewlett-Packard Co.

    Edward C. Johnson II, Fidelity Mutual Fund Charles F. Kettering, General Motors Corp.

    Reginald H. Jones, General Electric Co.

    W.K. Kellogg, Kellogg Co.

    Donald M. Kendall, PepsiCo, Inc.

    Bernard Kilgore, The Wall Street Journal

    Robert J. Kleberg Sr., King Ranch, Inc.

    Ray A. Kroc, McDonald's Corp.

    Alden J. Laborde, Odeco/Tidewater, Inc.

    Edwin H. Land, Polaroid Corp.

    William F. Laporte, American Home Products

    Estée Lauder, Estée Lauder, Inc.

    Forrest E. Mars, Mars, Inc.

    Jack C. Massey, HCA & KFC

    Malcolm P. McLean, Sea-Land Service, Inc.

    Rene C. McPherson, Dana Corp.

    George J. Mecherle, State Farm Insurance

    Andrew Mellon, Financier

    Howard J. Morgens, Procter & Gamble Co.

    S. I. Newhouse, Newhouse Publishing

    Robert N. Noyce, Intel/Sematech

    Adolph S. Ochs, The New York Times

    David Packard, Hewlett-Packard Co.

    William S. Paley, CBS, Inc.

    William A. Patterson, United Airlines

    H. Ross Perot, Electronic Data Systems

    Wallace R. Persons, Emerson

    Abe Plough, Schering-Plough Corp.

    Dr. Simon Ramo, TRW/Bunker Ramo

    Donald T. Regan, Merrill Lynch

    James W. Rouse, Rouse Co.

    Jacob H. Schiff, Kuhn, Loeb & Co.

    Charles M. Schwab, Bethlehem Steel

    Igor Sikorsky, Sikorsky Aircraft

    Charles Spaulding, North Carolina Mutual

    John E. Swearingen, Standard Oil Co.

    DeWitt Wallace, Reader's Digest

    Lila Acheson Wallace, Reader's Digest

    George Westinghouse, Westinghouse Corp.

    Joseph C. Wilson, Xerox Corp.

    Kemmons Wilson, Holiday Inns, Inc.

    T.A. Wilson, The Boeing Co.

    Owen D. Young, General Electric

  • Jay Van Andel, Amway Corp.

    Walter H. Annenberg, Triangle Publications

    Mary Kay Ash, Mary Kay Corp.

    Bernard M. Baruch, Industrialist & Economist

    Leon L. Bean, L.L. Bean, Inc.

    Charles L. Brown, AT&T

    Warren E. Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, Inc.

    James E. Burke, Johnson & Johnson

    Philip Caldwell, Ford Motor Co.

    James E. Casey, United Parcel Service

    Liz Claiborne, Liz Claiborne, Inc.

    W. Edwards Deming, Total Quality Management

    Max De Pree, Herman Miller, Inc.

    Richard M. DeVos, Amway Corp.

    John T. Dorrance, Campbell Soup Co.

    Peter F. Drucker, Management Professor & Author

    William Durant, General Motors Corp.

    Marriner S. Eccles, Federal Reserve Board

    Henry Ford II, Ford Motor Co.

    Robert W. Galvin, Motorola, Inc.

    Stanley C. Gault, Rubbermaid/Goodyear Tire

    Roberto C. Goizueta, The Coca-Cola Co.

    Samuel Goldwyn, Samuel Goldwyn Co.

    Berry Gordy Jr., Motown Records

    Katharine Graham, The Washington Post

    Andrew S. Grove, Intel Corp.

    Alexander Hamilton, Bank of NY & NY Post

    Ruth Handler, Mattel, Inc.

    Paul Henson, Sprint Corp.

    Alonzo Herndon, Atlanta Life Insurance Co.

    Dee Ward Hock, VISA U.S.A., Inc.

    Amory Houghton, Corning Glass Works

    Howard Hughes, Inventor, Aviator, Movie Producer

    Lee Iacocca, Chrysler Corp.

    Martha Rivers Ingram, Ingram Industries, Inc.

    Steven P. Jobs, Apple Computer

    Samuel C. Johnson, S.C. Johnson & Sons, Inc.

    John H. Johnson, Johnson Publishing Co.

    Carl H. Lindner Jr., American Financial Group, Inc.

    Rebecca Lukens, Lukens Steel Inc.

    Peter Lynch, Fidelity Magellan Fund

    J. Willard Marriott Sr., Marriott Corp.

    Louis B. Mayer, MGM/UA

    Frederick L. Maytag, Maytag Corp.

    Robert F. McDermott, USAA

    William McGowan, MCI

    William L. McKnight, 3M

    Robert Mondavi, Robert Mondavi Winery

    Thomas S. Murphy, Capital Cities/ABC Inc.

    John D. Nichols, Illinois Tool Works Inc.

    Raymond Noorda, Novell Inc.

    Arthur Ortenberg, Liz Claiborne, Inc.

    Edmund T. Pratt Jr., Pfizer Inc

    Julius Rosenwald, Sears, Roebuck & Co.

    Richard W. Sears, Sears, Roebuck & Co.

    John Smale, Procter & Gamble Co./ Gen. Motors

    Frederick W. Smith, FedEx Corp.

    Levi Strauss, Levi Strauss & Co.

    John Templeton, Templeton Growth Fund

    Dave Thomas, Wendy’s International, Inc.

    Juan T. Trippe, Pan American World Airways

    P. Roy Vagelos, Merck & Co

    Madam C.J. Walker, Walker Mfg. Co.

    Sam M. Walton, Wal-Mart

    Thomas J. Watson Sr., IBM Corp.

    John F. Welch Jr., General Electric Co.

    Frank W. Woolworth, F.W. Woolworth Co.

  • Philip F. Anschutz, The Anschutz Corp.

    Bob Basham, Outback Steakhouse

    Hans W. Becherer, Deere & Co.

    Glen W. Bell, Taco Bell Corp.

    Arthur M. Blank, The Home Depot, Inc.

    Henry W. Bloch, H&R Block, Inc.

    Harold Boeschenstein, Owens-Corning Fliberglas

    Gertrude Boyle, Columbia Sportswear Co.

    John H. Bryan, Sara Lee Corp.

    August A. Busch Jr. , Anheuser-Busch Co.,

    August A. Busch III, Anheuser-Busch Co.

    Ely Reeves Callaway, Jr. , Callaway Golf Co.

    Curtis L. Carlson, Carlson Companies

    Steve Case, America Online, Inc.

    S. Truett Cathy, Chick-fil-A, Inc.

    Charles M. Cawley, MBNA America Corp.

    Raymond G. Chambers, Amelior Foundation

    Kenneth I. Chenault, American Express Corp.

    Maxine Clark, Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc.

    Lodwrick M. Cook, Global Crossing Ltd.

    Mike Curb, Curb Records

    Edward Donley, Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

    William H.G. France, NASCAR

    Thomas F. Frist Jr., M.D., HCA

    J.B. Fuqua, The Fuqua Companies

    Tim Gannon, Outback Steakhouse

    Genevieve Gore, Gore & Associates, Inc.

    Wilbert Gore, W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc.

    Earl G. Graves Sr., Black Enterprise Magazine

    Harry Jack Gray, United Technologies Corp.

    Wayne Huizenga, Huizenga Holdings

    George W. Jenkins, Publix Super Markets

    Robert L. Johnson, Black Entertainment Television

    Herb D. Kelleher, Southwest Airlines Co.

    Don Keough, The Coca-Cola Co.

    Charles F. Knight, Emerson

    Herbert V. Kohler Jr., Kohler Co.

    Bernard Marcus, The Home Depot, Inc.

    Hugh L. McColl Jr., Bank of America

    John H. McConnell, Worthington Industries, Inc.

    David Hall McConnell, Avon Products Inc.

    Roger Milliken, Milliken & Co

    Allen H. Neuharth, USA Today

    Spencer Penrose, Miner owner, Hotelier

    John E. Pepper Jr., The Procter & Gamble Company

    Harland Sanders, Kentucky Fried Chicken

    John H. Schnatter, Papa John’s International, Inc.

    Frank Shrontz, The Boeing Co.

    Muriel Siebert, Muriel Siebert & Co., Inc.

    Chris Sullivan, Outback Steakhouse

    Robert A. Swanson, Genentech, Inc.

    Richard F. Teerlink, Harley-Davidson, Inc.

    Ted Turner, Turner Enterprises

    Maggie Lena Walker, St. Luke Penny Savings Bank

    Robert B. Wegman, Wegmans Food Markets

    Joseph Wharton, Wharton School of Business

    Edward E. Whitacre Jr., AT&T, Inc.

    Meg Whitman, eBay Inc.

    Edgar S. Woolard Jr., DuPont

    William Wrigley Jr., Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co.

  • No laureates inducted