US founders In these US corporations, their founders are still in charge

At some point, almost no mega-founder can resist early retirement. It hit Google at the end of 2019. Larry Page and Sergej Brin retired from the top of the parent company Alphabet. The search engine pioneers, who were only in their mid-40s, are still far from retiring. Who knows, maybe you can even expect another stroke of genius from them. When they say goodbye to their company, however, in the public consciousness they are one of the “elder statesmen” of Microsoft’s grandfather Bill Gates.

Founder CEOs are the exception

A look at the current “Fortune 500” list shows that only 14 of the 500 top-selling companies in the USA are still managed by their founder. An obvious cause is the age of a company. But the example of Google shows that even younger companies often lose their founders early. It is not infrequently due to success. With a billion assets behind, the momentum for day-to-day business is easily lost.

Founders are also often pioneers and prefer to look for new challenges after a while. However, they are also pushed out of their companies in crises if they have given up power to supervisory boards and major shareholders in the course of growth and who prefer a manager according to the visionary.

Founder as a strong CEO

However, some exceptional entrepreneurs show perseverance. They have been at the top of their company for decades, leading them from success to success. Or take a position so self-confident that a successor might not have dared – see the public “So Not” by Twitter boss Jack Dorsey against the fake news tirades by US President Donald Trump.

Founder bosses are a rarity in the top group of US companies. You only manage 43 of the 1000 largest US companies. Only one of them made the Top 40 in the Fortune 500. For this, this CEO plays in his own league.

These US companies are run by their founder.