As head of America’s Barnes & Noble chain he reinvented the business, but could not compete with Amazon’s disruption
A culinary revolutionary, he helped transform French gastronomy in the 1970s
Former FT correspondent and professor was profiled in the Weekend magazine
Former YouTube chief played a big role in shaping online advertising and championed women in the tech industry
The left-handed batsman was a shining light in an often dark period for the English game
Silicon Valley banker sensed technology’s potential early and underwrote companies that became household names
Creator of the Sweet Valley High young adult fiction phenomenon put books in the hands of a generation of girls
Having launched her literary career in scandal and outrage, she was revered by readers — and, in time, her homeland — as a charismatic change-maker
From trains to fountain pens, style never trumped functional substance in the products for which he became famous
Known to millions from radio, TV and books as ‘Dr Ruth’ she revolutionised the way Americans thought and talked about sex
The Swiss father of extreme skiing pioneered descents from the Alps to the Himalayas — and became the sport’s first star
The footballer turned criminal was jailed for stealing Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ and was then himself inspired by it to paint
A novelist who survived one of eastern Europe’s most vicious tyrannies and drew comparisons with Kafka and Orwell
A late starter at the Bar, her rulings on high-value matrimonial disputes burnished London’s attraction for celebrity couples
The dealmaker flitted between Whitehall corridors and Middle Eastern palaces in a quest to rejuvenate his hometown
Athletic and versatile player known as the ‘Say Hey Kid’ lit up what many consider the sport’s golden age
The ‘ye-ye’ scene star came to symbolise the aesthetic of existentialist Left Bank Paris
Mother whose five-decade search for her abducted son helped power a hugely successful human rights movement
The co-founder of the CVS pharmacy chain oversaw its expansion from a pair of stores into a business behemoth
Arbitrageur came to fame as a mergers expert but his scandal helped define Wall Street excess
Conservative cleric and protégé of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was a contender to become the Islamic republic’s next supreme leader
Former rugby champion, Heinz CEO and media owner made and lost one of his country’s biggest fortunes
FT wordsmith with an eye for polished prose
Canadian Chekhov who compressed the epic complexity of the novel into just a few pages
An apostle of noise fascinated by the dark side of human behaviour
