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Steve Case:
Chairman and CEO of Revolution
Few people have had the kind of impact on business and culture that Steve Case has had. A lifelong entrepreneur and innovator, Steve founded Revolution to create far-reaching change, to further empower consumers in key categories, and to build enduring business success.
As co-founder of AOL, Steve Case led the charge to make the Internet an essential part of everyday life. Although many first learned of AOL in the late 1990s and assumed it was an overnight success, in fact it was the result of a 20 year journey, with many twists and turns. It took 9 years for AOL to enroll its first 1 million subscribers - and then over the next 9 years went from 1 million to 20 million subscribers and its resulting $100+ billion market capitalization enabled it to merge with Time Warner and become the largest shareholder of the world's largest media, entertainment and communications company. In 2003, the Wall Street Journal concluded AOL was - even after a post-merger stock drop - the best investment over the previous 10 year period, outperforming the stocks of Microsoft, Walmart, and others.
When Steve became Chairman of AOL Time Warner, he saw first hand how hard it is for large companies to innovate - and sometimes longed for the early days of AOL when a small, passionate team was putting in place the building blocks for AOL's later success. So when he stepped down as Chairman in 2003, it was natural that Steve found himself drawn to entrepreneurial companies. Within weeks, he met the founders of Exclusive Resorts and bought half the company on the spot. Several months later, he became passionate about the possibilities in the burgeoning wellness and healthy living sector and bought control of Miraval - Life In Balance.
But these initial forays were just building blocks - in 2004 it became clear to Steve that the approach he had adopted could be applied to other companies in other industries. That led to the development of Revolution, and the refinement of a more systematic approach to building disruptive consumer businesses.
While Revolution will be Steve's principal focus over the coming years, he also is Chairman of The Case Foundation, and is an active investor and philanthropist in Hawaii.
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