#7 Judah Folkman #9 John P. Abizaid
Courtesy of eBay
President and CEO, eBay, Inc.
Location Atherton, CA
Age 50
HBS MBA 1979
Fondly referred to as eBay’s “chief executive enabler,” Whitman stewarded a grass-roots online swap meet into a dominant paradigm of the new economy. Surrounded by competitors trying to catch up with the first big winner in online auctions, she has aggressively moved eBay into related services and is making bets on new technologies. Handling more transactions daily than the Nasdaq requires help, which is why eBay bought PayPal in 2002, 25% of Craigslist in 2004, and Skype (for a prematurely tut-tutted $2.6 billion) in 2005. Whitman, who has always worked out of a cubicle alongside her employees, theorizes that by creating the largest ecosystem on the Internet, she’ll be able to dictate the rules of e-commerce in the long run.
However… Google: friend or foe? The search giant emerged as a direct competitor when it rolled out free online classifieds and transaction services this year—then partnered with eBay in a deal intended to boost Skype’s revenue.
Google hits 343,000 for “Meg Whitman”; 20,200 for “I got it on eBay"
#7 Judah Folkman #9 John P. Abizaid
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