Bewkes is the CEO, President, and Chairman of the Board of Time Warner.

Jeff Bewkes says he planned to be a television reporter when he graduated from Yale, and one of his first jobs was at NBC, where he worked as a researcher. He had the looks for the job, but obviously not the patience. After deciding he wanted to make a better living, the Darien native headed off to Stanford Business School and worked briefly at Citibank, before landing at HBO as a junior finance exec in 1979. Bewkes worked his way up the ranks and was elevated to CEO a decade and a half later, following the ouster of his mentor, Michael J. Fuchs. Beginning in 1995, the newly-minted chief - along with his head programming whiz (and eventual successor) Chris Albrecht - focused the network on developing original programming, a decision responsible for unleashing a torrent of hits including Sex and the City, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Bewkes's path to the top of the media behemoth emerged shortly after the merger of Time Warner and AOL in 2000. When it became clear that the deal, cut at the height of the dotcom frenzy, had been a disastrous move for the company—and after a handful of senior AOL execs (including Steve Case and Bob Pittman) were tossed overboard—Bewkes was well-positioned to move up into a senior leadership position. In 2002, the company's newly-appointed chief, Dick Parsons, tapped Bewkes to oversee Time Warner's collection of entertainment properties. Three years later, he named him president and chief operating officer, clearly signaling Bewkes's position as heir apparent. Sure enough, when Parsons announced his retirement in November 2007, the board of directors picked Bewkes to replace him.

Bewkes is married to his second wife, Peggy Brim Bewkes, a former aide to ABC News president Roone Arledge. Between the two of them, they have three kids. They divide their time between a house in Greenwich and an apartment on Park Avenue in the 80s. [Image via Getty]