Carl Celian Icahn (born February 16, 1936) is an American business magnate.

Icahn was raised in Far Rockaway, Queens, New York City, where he attended Far Rockaway High School. His father was a cantor, his mother was a schoolteacher. He was educated at Princeton University (A.B., philosophy, 1957) and New York University School of Medicine, but left without graduating.

Icahn began his career on Wall Street in 1961. In 1968, he formed Icahn & Co., a securities firm that focused on risk arbitrage and options trading. In 1978, he began taking control of positions in individual companies. He has taken substantial or controlling positions in various corporations including RJR Nabisco, TWA, Texaco, Phillips Petroleum, Western Union, Gulf & Western, Viacom, Uniroyal, Dan River, Marshall Field's, E-II (Culligan and Samsonite), American Can, USX, Marvel Comics, Revlon, Imclone, Federal-Mogul, Fairmont Hotels, Blockbuster, Kerr-McGee, Time Warner and Motorola.

Little is known about Carl Icahns' endeavors prior to the 1990s, yet still many have regarded him as a main player in the "junk bond," and "mortgage bond," industries which transformed corporate America and S & L's into a profitable enclave susceptible to investment bankers and corporate raiders.

William A. Ackman, more commonly known as Bill Ackman, (born May 11, 1966) is the founder and CEO of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management LP. In December 2007 his funds owned a 10% stake in Target Corporation, valued at $4.2 billion through the purchase of stock and derivatives. His funds now own a 7.8% stake. In December 2010, his funds held a 38% stake in Borders Group and on December 6, 2010, Ackman indicated he would finance a buyout of Barnes & Noble for US$900M. He most recently won a shareholder proxy battle for Canadian Pacific Railroad.

Ackman was raised in Chappaqua, New York. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1988, and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1992.

In 1992, Ackman co-founded Gotham Partners with another Harvard graduate. By 1998, the firm had more than $500M in assets. In 2003, the New York Attorney General investigated whether the firm had engaged in illegal practices for publishing its own research reports on stocks in which it has taken either a long or short position. The litigation concluded that the firm had committed no wrongdoing. Gotham Partners primarily invested in non-publicly traded companies and real estate concerns.

James "Jim" J. Cramer (born February 10, 1955) is an American television personality, a former hedge fund manager, and a best-selling author. Cramer is the host of CNBC's Mad Money and a co-founder and chairman of TheStreet.com, Inc.

Cramer married Karen Backfisch-Olufsen, a trader, in 1988,^{[citation needed]} and lives in Summit, New Jersey.

Cramer was born to Jewish parents in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. One of his first jobs was selling ice cream at Veterans Stadium during Philadelphia Phillies games. Cramer went to Springfield Township High School in Montgomery County.

Cramer graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a B.A. in government.

He began his involvement with journalism in college, working for The Harvard Crimson, and rising to become its president. After graduation, Cramer worked in several entry-level reporting jobs. Dating back to March 1, 1978, Cramer worked for the Tallahassee Democrat in Tallahassee, Florida, where he covered the Ted Bundy murders. The then-executive editor, Richard Oppel, says "[Cramer] was like a driving ram. He was great at getting the story." He then worked as a journalist for The Los Angeles Herald Examiner. Around this time, his apartment was robbed and he was left with nothing more than his car and the things in it; he lived out of his car for about nine months.^{[citation needed]} He also worked for Governor Jerry Brown.

Nelson Peltz is an American businessman and a founding partner, together with Peter W. May and Edward P. Garden, of Trian Fund Management. L.P., an alternative investment management fund, based in New York. He is non-executive chairman of the Board of The Wendy's Company and a director of H.J. Heinz Company and Legg Mason, Inc. He was formerly the Chief Executive Officer of Triangle Industries, a Fortune 100 industrial company.

Peltz was born on June 24, 1942 in Brooklyn, New York., the son of Claire (née Wechsler) and Maurice Herbert Peltz. He was enrolled at the undergraduate program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, but never completed his degree. He dropped out to work for his family's business selling food to restaurants in New York.

In the 1980s, Nelson Peltz and his business partner, Peter May, built Triangle Industries into a Fortune 100 industrial company. Triangle was sold to Pechiney in 1988.

In 1997, through an investment vehicle they controlled, Triarc Cos, Nelson Peltz and Peter May acquired Snapple, from Quaker Oats. Snapple, together with other beverage brands was sold to Cadbury Schweppes in 2000. The Snapple turnaround was featured as a Harvard Business School case study.

Thorsten Heins (born December 29, 1957) is the current chief executive officer of Research in Motion.

He was born in Gifhorn, Germany. Heins has a master's degree in science and physics from the University of Hanover.

Heins has been at RIM since 2007. He rose through the ranks starting as Senior Vice President of BlackBerry Handheld Business Unit; Chief Operating Officer of Product Engineering; and finally Chief Operating Officer of Product and Sales since July 2011 before coming CEO. Prior to coming to RIM he was chief technology officer at Siemens AG at the time of his move.

In January 2012 he was named to succeed RIM company founders Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis as President and CEO of RIM.