Jeffrey P. Bezos

If the online retail empire had a royal family, 43-year-old Jeffrey P. Bezos of

Bezos has been a risk-taker since the beginning. When the dot.com bubble burst and he faced start-up losses that totaled $550 million, he continued to embrace cutting-edge technology and forged ahead. Whether it‘s with the downloadable music market or adding online product reviews, Bezos always thinks one step ahead. Despite some early generational criticism, the company recently launched the new handheld Amazon Kindle, a wireless e-book reader that has been called the new iPod of the previously sluggish downloadable e-book market. This vision has dynamic potential to shape not only the book industry, but also the way consumers will read in the future.