1. Hock Tan

CEO

Broadcom

Tan has bought four companies for a combined $71 billion since 2015 in a relentless drive for growth.

Now he has set his sights on VMware via a pro­posed $61 billion acquisition that has the potential to shake up the cloud market, follow­ing Symantec in 2019, CA Technologies in 2018, Brocade in 2016 and the merger in 2015 between Avago and Broadcom.

It’s moves like those that led the co-founder of Broadcom, Dr. Henry T. Nicholas, to describe Tan as a “visionary” leader for creating “a fast-paced, no-nonsense, process-driven business culture that we need to take our combined company to the next level.”

In June, following the revelation that Broadcom had reached the VMware agreement, Tan appeared on CNBC’s “Mad Money,” where host Jim Cramer asked Tan if there was anyone left to acquire.

“Oh, I’m sure there will be, but I’m focused on one deal at a time,” Tan answered with a smile.