6 of 10
BACKNEXT
Michael Dell, Dell
Michael Dell, Dell

When we included Dell in a "People to Watch" feature in the September 15, 1986 issue, he was practically a child. At 21, he didn't look much different than he does today, save for some very large eyeglasses.

Dell had dropped out of college to found PC's Limited in Austin, Tx., and he was predicting revenues of over $80 million for that fiscal year. Fortune made a point to report that PC's Limited was Dell's second major business outing -- at age 12, "he got a tax permit from the state of Texas to resell stamps and baseball cards."

PC's Limited eventually became Dell Inc., and only six years after being flagged as one to watch, Dell became the youngest CEO ever of a Fortune 500 company. Although the company has stumbled a bit recently, it remains a $28 billion business with baseball card dealer Michael Dell as its CEO.


NEXT: Dan Snyder, Washington Redskins
Last updated December 01 2010: 6:26 PM ET
You don't have to worry about a sagging 401k and you can relate to your Gen Y employees. Why it's great to be at the top before middle age. More
Which young executives at public companies brought home the most bacon this year? And exactly how much bacon are we talking about? More
Meet this year's class of youthful movers and shakers. They're innovating, they're expanding, and they're not really thinking about the recession. More

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.