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.
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Last updated December 01 2010: 6:26 PM ET
