Ronald Perelman

Educated in boardroom behavior at his father's knee, Perelman began attending board meetings for Belmont Industries when he was only 11. He took some time off to go to college at the University of Pennsylvania (1964) and graduate school at the Wharton Business School before joining the family firm. He opened his own business in 1978 in New York City and soon developed a reputation as a turnaround specialist, stripping away extraneous business lines that distracted from a company's core competencies and getting rid of the red ink.