List of Famous Companies and their Founders

Behind the world’s most famous and successful companies, there are persons who have been called the founding fathers.  They are the ones who founded, started and established those businesses and brands which continue to live and serve the consumers for years and even for centuries. Below you will find a list of famous companies in the world and their founders. It includes some of the oldest businesses, such as Procter & Gamble which was founded by William Procter and James Gamble in 1837, and Colgate-Palmolive which business can be traced way back in 1806 when William Colgate, a soap and candle maker, opened up a starch, soap and candle factory on Dutch Street in New York City. Some of these enterprises have continued and evolved despite of the world wars. Included in the list is Mitsubishi, which during the Second World War, manufactured aircraft (Mitsubishi A6M “Zero” naval fighter) under the direction of Jiro Horikoshi. Further, there are also companies that will inspire us and give us valuable lessons because they have only started from scratch and even started their business at their dorm rooms, like the case of Facebook and Dell. Here is the list. Enjoy and increase thy knowledge.

1. Abbott Laboratories – founded by Dr. Wallace Calvin Abbott in 1888 (North Chicago, Illinois, USA)

2. Adidas – by Adolf “Adi” Dassler in 1924 (Herzogenaurach, Germany)

3. Amazon.com – by Jeff Bezos in 1994 (Seattle, Washington, USA)

4. American Express – by Henry Wells (Wells & Company), William Fargo (Livingston, Fargo & Company), and John Warren Butterfield (Wells, Butterfield & Company) in 1850 (Albany, New York, USA)

5. Apple Inc. – Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in April 1, 1976 (Cupertino, California, USA)

6. Avon Products – by David H. McConnell in 1886 (New York City, New York, USA)

7. BMW (Bayerische Motoren Werke or Bavarian Motor Works) – by Franz Josef Popp in 1916 (Munich, Germany)

8. Canon – by by Takeshi Mitarai, Goro Yoshida, Saburo Uchida and Takeo Maeda in 1937 (Tokyo, Japan)

9. Carlsberg – by J.C. (Jacob Christian) Jacobsen in 1847 (Copenhagen, Denmark)

10. Cisco Systems, Inc. – by Len Bosack, Sandy Lerner and Richard Troiano in 1984 (San Francisco, USA)

11. Colgate-Palmolive – by William Colgate in 1806 (New York City USA)

12. Comcast –  Ralph J. Roberts, Daniel Aaron and Julian A. Brodsky in 1963 (Tupelo, Mississippi, USA)

13. Dell – by Michael Dell in November 4, 1984 (Austin, Texas, USA)

14. Deutsche Bank –by Adelbert Delbrück and a number of private bankers in 1870 (Berlin Germany)

15. eBay Inc. – by Pierre Morad Omidyar in September 3, 1995 (San Jose, California, USA)

16. Ericsson – by Lars Magnus Ericsson in 1876 (Stockholm, Sweden)

17. Facebook – by Mark Elliot Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, and Chris Hughes in 2004 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA)

18. FedEx – by Frederick W. Smith in 1971 (Little Rock, Arkansas)

19. Ford Motor Company – by Henry Ford in June 16, 1903 ( Detroit, Michigan, USA)

20. General Electric– founded by Charles Coffin,  Edwin Houston, Elihu Thomson, and Thomas Edison in 1892 (Schenectady, New York, USA)

21. Google Inc. – by Sergey Brin and Larry Page in September 4, 1998 (Menlo Park, California, USA)

22. HP (Hewlett-Packard) Company – by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 (Palo Alto, California, USA)

23. HSBC (Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) – by Sir Thomas Sutherland in 1865 (Hongkong and Shanghai, China)

24. Hyundai Motor Company – by Hyundai Motor Company in December 29, 1967 (Seoul, South Korea)

25. IBM (International Business Machines) – by Thomas J. Watson in June 16, 1911 (Endicott, New York, USA)

26. Intel Corporation – by Gordon E. Moore, Robert Noyce and Arthur Rock in 1968 (Mountain View, California, USA)

27. Johnson & Johnson – by Robert Wood Johnson I, James Wood Johnson, and Edward Mead Johnson in 1886 (New Brunswick, NJ, USA)

28. LG Corp – by Koo In-Hwoi in  1947 (Seoul, South Korea)

29. L’Oréal – by Eugène Schueller in 1909 (France)

30. McDonald’s – by Richard and Maurice McDonald (McDonald’s restaurant concept) in May 15, 1940 in San Bernardino, California; and Ray Kroc (McDonald’s Corporation founder) in April 15, 1955 (Des Plaines, Illinois)

31. Microsoft – by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in April 4, 1975 (Albuquerque, New Mexico)

32. Mitsubishi – by Yataro Iwasaki in 1870 (Japan)

33. Morgan Stanley – by Henry S. Morgan and Harold Stanley in 1935 (Wall Street, New York City, USA)

34. News Corporation – by Rupert Murdoch in 1979 (Adelaide, Australia)

35. Nestlé –  by Henri Nestlé in 1866 (Vevey, Switzerland)

36. Nike – by Bill Bowerman and Philip Knight in 1964 (Santa Monica, California, USA)

37. Nintendo – by  Fusajiro Yamauchi in September 23, 1889 (Kyoto, Japan)

38. Nissan Motor – Masujiro Hashimoto, Kenjiro Den, Rokuro Aoyama, Meitaro Takeuchi and Yoshisuke Aikawa in December 26, 1933 (Japan)

39. Nokia – by Fredrik Idestam and Leo Mechelin in 1865 (Tampere, Finland)

40. Oracle Corporation – by Larry Ellison,Bob Miner, Ed Oates in 1977 (California, USA)

41. PepsiCo, Inc. – by Donald M. Kendall, President /CEO of Pepsi-Cola and Herman W. Lay, Chairman/CEO of Frito-Lay in 1986 (North Carolina, USA)

42. Philips –by Gerard Philips and Frederik Philips in 1891 (Eindhoven, Netherlands)

43. Porsche – by Ferdinand Porsche in 1931 (Germany)

44. Procter & Gamble – by William Procter and James Gamble, in 1837 (Cincinnati, Ohio, USA)

45. Pfizer – by cousins Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart in 1849 (Brooklyn, New York, USA)

46. Samsung –  by Lee Byung-chull  in 1938 (Daegu South Korea)

47. SAP (Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing)- Dietmar Hopp, Hans-Werner Hector, Hasso Plattner, Klaus Tschira, Claus Wellenreuther in 1972 (Weinheim, Germany)

48. Siemens – by Werner von Siemens in 1847 (Berlin Germany)

49. Sony – by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita May 7, 1946 (Tokyo, Japan)

50. Suzuki Motor Corporation – by Michio Maruti Suzuki in 1909 (Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan)

51. Sharp Corporation – by Tokuji Hayakawa in 1912 (Tokyo, Japan)

52. Starbucks – by Jerry Baldwin, Gordon Bowker and Zev Siegl in March 30, 1971 (Pike Place Market in Seattle, Washington, USA)

53. Tata Group – Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata in 1868 (Mumbai, India)

54. The Boeing Company – by William E. Boeing in 1916 (Seattle, Washington, USA)

55. The Coca-Cola Company – by John Pemberton and Asa Candler in 1892 (Atlanta, Georgia, USA)

56. The Walt Disney Company – by Walt and Roy Disney in October 16, 1923 (Los Angeles, California, USA)

57. Toshiba Corporation – Hisashige Tanaka, Ichisuke Fujioka and Shoichi Miyoshi in 1939 (Tokyo, Japan)

58. Uniliver – by Antonius Johannes Jurgens, Samuel van den Bergh and William Hulme Lever, 2nd Viscount Leverhulme in (London, United Kingdom,Rotterdam, The Netherlands)

59. United Parcel Service (UPS) – Jim Casey and Claude Ryan  in 1907 (Seattle, Washington, USA)

60. Walmart –  by Sam Walton in 1962 (Arkansas, USA)

61. Yahoo! – by Jerry Yang and David Filo in March 1, 1995 (Santa Clara, California, USA)

 

Source: Forbes.com, Wikipedia.com and the official websites of the companies listed above.