Business and Economics

The following is a growing list of Princeton alumni who have made contributions in the area of business and economics.

Please note: As is traditional when referring to Princeton alumni, each name is followed by the individual's graduation year. Those with undergraduate degrees are preceded with an apostrophe (e.g., Bruce Maclaury '53), and those with graduate degrees are preceded with an asterisk (e.g., John Forbes Nash *50). All alumni who graduated prior to 1930 will have their class year spelled out — including undergraduate alumni (e.g., Walter Morgan, Class of 1920) and graduate alumni (e.g., Harold Dodds, GS 1914).

Norman Augustine '57 *59 – Chairman of Lockheed Martin; led National Academies Committee on Science Engineering and Public Policy (produced report on economic competitiveness); believes "science education is the future strength of the U.S. economy."

Gary Becker '51 – Nobel Prize winner in economics in 1992 for work on topics such as racial discrimination, crime, family organization and drug addiction.

Jeff Bezos '86 – Founder of Amazon.com, one of the first major companies to sell goods via the Internet; named Time magazine's Man of the Year in 1999.

John C. (Jack) Bogle '51 – Founder of the Vanguard Group, one of the largest mutual funds in the world; investment strategy focuses on the superiority of index funds rather than the traditionally managed mutual funds. Named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2004.

David Card *83 – Labor economist; won Clark Medal in 1995; research on immigration, education, inequality and job training.

Barbara Cassani *84 – Built Go Airlines, the first successful budget airline in Great Britain; leader in London's bid for the Summer Olympics in 2012.

Mort Collins *63 – Venture capitalist; founder and managing partner of successful venture funds in markets such as life sciences, communications, software and electronic materials. Member of the Research Roundtable of the National Academy of Sciences. Chaired President Reagan's Task Force on Innovation and Entrepreneurship and served as a technology policy adviser to President George H. W. Bush.

Philip Condit *65 – Chairman and CEO, Boeing Corp.

Malcolm Forbes '41 – Publisher of Forbes magazine.

William Clay Ford '79 – Executive chairman, Ford Motor Co.; longtime environmentalist, focused on improving fuel efficiency in the Ford fleet.

James Heckman *71 – Nobel Prize winner in economics in 2000 for "theory and methods that are widely used in the empirical analysis of individual and household behavior, within economics as well as other social sciences." He studies the impact of a variety of social programs on the economy and on society at large, and has written on the impact of civil rights and affirmative-action programs, taxes, unionism, and other issues.

Lee Iacocca *46 – As chairman of Chrysler Corp., he brought the company back from bankruptcy and moved to improve fuel efficiency.

Robert Johnson *72 – Founded and led Black Entertainment Television, a media force that became the first African American-owned company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Andrea Jung '79 – A CEO of Avon, considered one of the most powerful women in American business; contributed significantly to strengthening the company's reputation as a leading direct seller of beauty products.

John Kamm '72 – Business leader who founded the Dai Hua Foundation focused on human rights in China and the U.S.; civil rights activist in China; has helped hundreds of Chinese political prisoners.

Arthur Levinson *77 – A president and CEO of Genentech. Under his leadership, the company has been a leader in the development of cancer drugs.

Peter Lewis '55 – Philanthropist and former CEO of Progressive Insurance. During his tenure, Progressive became the fifth-largest auto insurance company in the United States.

Bruce Maclaury '53 – Undersecretary of the treasury for monetary policy (1969-71), president of Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis (1971-77), president of Brookings Institution (1977-95).

Burton Malkiel *64 – Member of the Council of Economic Advisers; noted economist, writer and Princeton economics professor; leading advocate for the Efficient Market hypothesis; wrote popular finance book, "A Random Walk Down Wall Street."

N. Gregory Mankiw '80 – Harvard economics professor and former chairman (2003–05) of the President's Council of Economic Advisers. Author of two popular college textbooks; his "Principles of Economics" has sold more than a million copies and been translated into 20 languages.

Jason D. McManus *58 – Editor-in-chief of Time-Warner Inc. (1987–1994) at the time of its creation.

Walter Morgan, Class of 1920 – Certified public accountant; created and founded the Wellington Fund, one of the country's first mutual funds, in 1929. His conservative investment policy served his customers well through the stock market crash, and the firm's assets passed the $1 million mark by 1935. Precursor to the Vanguard Group founded by Jack Bogle '51.

Nathan Myhrvold *83 – Chief technology officer for Microsoft, contributed significantly to the creation of Microsoft's most successful operating systems: Windows, Windows NT and Windows CE.

John Forbes Nash *50 – Nobel laureate in economics in 1994 for his work related to game theory; best known in popular culture as subject of the best-selling novel and popular motion picture "A Beautiful Mind."

Michael Porter '69 – Professor at Harvard Business School; world authority on competitive strategy and the competitiveness and economic development of nations, states and regions. Author of 17 books and more than 125 articles; a course he developed at Harvard is now taught at universities worldwide. Created Harvard Business School's program for newly appointed CEOs of billion-dollar corporations.

George Rathmann *51 – Founder of Amgen, the world's largest independent biotechnology company.

Laurance Rockefeller '32 – Philanthropist, venture capitalist and financier; invested in Eastern Airlines, which became the most profitable airline after WWII.

Louis Rukeyser '54 – Longtime host of the popular television show "Wall Street Week." Author of several books about investments.

Eric Schmidt '76 – executive chairman of Alphabet Inc., former chairman and CEO of Google Inc.

Michael Spence '66 – Nobel Prize winner in economics in 2001 for work in information flows and market development; most famous for his theory of how individuals in the job market communicate with others who have less information, with major implications in contract theory.

Murray L. Weidenbaum *54 – Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers (1981–82); key spokesman for the Reagan administration on financial/economic issues.

Meg Whitman '77 – A president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard and previously of eBay; Business Week has included her on its list of the 25 most powerful business managers annually since 2000.

Gordon Wu '58 – Builder and philanthropist; chairman of the board of Asian infrastructure firm Hopewell Holdings Ltd.; advocated the construction of Asia's largest bridge project linking Hong Kong, Macau and China's Zhuhai city.