(Previously Ranked 8)
In 1997, California power plant developer Jeffrey Sprecher bought Atlanta-based Continental Power Exchange, which he envisioned as an entrée into electronic over-the-counter energy trading. By 2000 it had transformed into IntercontinentalExchange.
Sprecher has never stopped acquiring — most notably, London’s International Petroleum Exchange in 2001, New York Board of Trade in 2007 and credit derivatives brokerage Creditex in 2008 — and today ICE is a major, global....