It’s often said that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Music titan Quincy Jones’s early collaboration with a teenaged Ray Charles opened the door to a world of music—and partnership opportunities. Jones lent his Midas touch when teaming up with notables such as film directors Sidney Lumet and Steven Spielberg, singer Frank Sinatra, and Michael Jackson, for whom he produced Thriller, the best-selling album of all time. Perhaps the 28-time Grammy winner’s most influential collaboration was “We Are the World,” the humanitarian anthem Jones arranged. He worked with more than 40 singers to produce the international hit that raised millions of dollars for famine relief.
Former Wells Fargo executive John McQuown created a think tank to explore money management methods. The collaborative effort yielded the first index funds. McQuown forged other successful partnerships, including cofounding the quant hedge fund Diversified Credit Investments (DCI) in 2004. Leon Cooper shared the 1972 Nobel Prize in physics with two colleagues, with whom he worked on the theory of superconductivity. Superconductors remain a foundational element of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems, whose scanning capabilities have helped save countless lives.
Quincy Jones
Composer and record producer revitalized the American songbook
He was all over the map, more heard than seen. If you didn’t hear his music, you must have been marooned on a deserted island with no discs. At age 11, Jones began improvising on a piano. Soon he was learning the trumpet from a member of Count Basie’s band and—encouraged by a teenage friend, Ray Charles—trying his hand at composing and arranging music. As a performer, songwriter, record company executive, and producer, he became one of the most influential people in music over the past half century. Thriller, the album he produced for Michael Jackson, shattered sales records. He reeled in scores of stars for the single “We Are the World,” raising millions for famine relief. He worked with Miles Davis, arranged “Fly Me to the Moon” for Frank Sinatra, and made “It’s My Party” a hit for Lesley Gore. The Color Purple and Pawnbroker were among the dozens of films whose music he wrote. Jones accumulated 28 Grammy awards and, though more of a jazz artist, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. His legacy includes hundreds of indelible tunes and a professorship of African American music at Harvard.
Los Angeles TimesNew York TimesDavid Bonderman
After a midcareer switch, a lawyer helped create a private equity giant
David Bonderman had earned a Harvard law degree, worked for the US Department of Justice, and hitchhiked across Africa. But he had never even dabbled in finance before being invited to help manage part of a Texas oil family’s fortune. In his early 40s, Bonderman swiftly mastered the business and cofounded Texas Pacific Group (more widely known as TPG) to pursue private equity deals and later investments in such start-ups as Uber and Spotify. His private equity triumphs included Burger King and Petco. Bonderman also cofounded the Seattle Kraken National Hockey League team, hired the Rolling Stones to play at a party, supported wilderness conservation, and helped preserve Grand Central Terminal. A rival investor, Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone, called Bonderman “one of the most creative and innovative dealmakers since 1990.”
New York TimesWall Street JournalBarron’sRohit Bal
Indian fashion designer reimagined traditional styles
His millions of fans expected excess, and he rarely disappointed them. Bal, who began to dazzle the fashion world in the 1990s, updated traditional Indian garments with modern techniques, fabrics, and frills. His voluminous muslin gowns, intricately beaded and embroidered, adorned Bollywood stars, as well as such overseas celebrities as Elizabeth Hurley, Uma Thurman, and Cindy Crawford. For Indian crews on British Airways flights, he designed long frock coats in red and blue. Bal’s fashion empire diversified into bedding, carpets, and tableware. Although he had been ill in recent years, his final fashion collection, introduced in October, thrilled his admirers. Mira Nair, an Indian-born filmmaker, said he had “created a path that people are now flamboyantly following.” Time magazine called him “India’s master of fabric and fantasy.”
New York TimesWomen’s Wear DailyJudith Jamison
Acclaimed dancer re-energized the Alvin Ailey dance company
It was hard for Black ballerinas to find work in 1964, so Jamison auditioned for a TV special. Although she didn’t get that job either, Jamison impressed the choreographer Alvin Ailey, who invited her to join his dance company. In 1971, her solo performance of Ailey’s “Cry” thrilled audiences. “From then on she was unofficially America’s most celebrated Black female dancer—maybe even the world’s,” the New York Times wrote. After Ailey died in 1989, she became director of his financially troubled troupe and transformed it into the most successful modern-dance company in the US. Jamison won Kennedy Center Honors and received the National Medal of Arts. She saw her work as depicting Black women triumphing over oppression. Her talent, she said, was “a special gift God gave me.”
New York TimesLos Angeles TimesJohn McQuown
Wells Fargo executive pioneered index investment funds
In the 1960s, University of Chicago economists argued that stock pickers could never beat the overall market in the long run. McQuown, who had studied mechanical engineering before earning an MBA at Harvard, drew on their theories and assembled a team at Wells Fargo that in 1971 created one of the first index funds. Their work pioneered a now-dominant investment strategy of seeking to replicate the performance of a stock index rather than betting on individual companies. McQuown later developed tools for analyzing credit risks. He applied a similar analytical approach to developing Stone Edge Farm, a Sonoma Valley producer of Cabernet Sauvignon whose winery is powered by a microgrid of alternative energy sources.
Wall Street JournalBloombergJohn Kinsel Sr.
Navajo code talker helped guide US troops in World War II
Kinsel grew up on Navajo land in Arizona at a time when Native Americans like him did not have the right to vote in that state. Yet he enlisted in the Marines during World War II and joined a group of Navajos who used their language to create a secret code for transmitting information about troop movements and orders. Their code, never broken, helped the United States win the war in the Pacific. Kinsel’s work took him to some of the deadliest combat zones, including Iwo Jima, where an explosion broke one of his legs. “I don’t want praise,” he said later. He belatedly received a Purple Heart medal in 1989.
Wall Street JournalNew York Times“Their code, never broken, helped the United States win the war in the Pacific.”
Leon Cooper
Physicist won a Nobel for helping to explain superconductivity
He took on a problem that had stumped Albert Einstein: Why can electricity flow through certain materials with no resistance at extremely low temperatures? Cooper and two colleagues came up with a theory explaining such “superconductivity” and won a Nobel Prize in physics for their work in 1972. Their theory helped pave the way for the development of MRI scans in medicine, among other things. Better understanding of superconductivity may someday lead to much faster computers. Cooper later focused on mysteries of the brain—including how we learn and how memories are stored—as director of a center for neural science at Brown University. He was asked whether he went to work every day in an effort to win another Nobel. “Absolutely not,” Cooper said. “You just go to work.”
Washington PostDaily TelegraphLynda Obst
Movie producer brought a woman’s viewpoint to Hollywood
Obst, a magazine writer who moved into film production in the 1980s, got her first big break by recognizing the potential of the idea that spawned Flashdance. She went on to produce hit romantic comedies such as Sleepless in Seattle and sci-fi triumphs including Interstellar. Obst successfully fought for the casting of Jodie Foster, rather than a man, as an astronomer in Contact. Late in her career, she lamented Hollywood’s growing obsession with safe sequels and “gigantic explosions.” Obst called for more of the sorts of comedies and dramas that appeal to women. Her legacy also includes two books that tell inside stories of the movie business: Hello, He Lied and Sleepless in Hollywood.
Washington PostNew York Times“She lamented Hollywood’s growing obsession with safe sequels and ‘gigantic explosions.’”
Clifton R. Wharton Jr.
Black economist headed TIAA, Michigan State, SUNY, and Rockefeller Foundation
Being the first Black person to head an organization was routine for Wharton. He had that distinction at the pension firm TIAA, Michigan State University, State University of New York, and the Rockefeller Foundation. He also served briefly as deputy US secretary of state. Wharton, who had degrees from Harvard and the University of Chicago, was proud to have blazed trails for others but was sometimes annoyed that each time he had to prove he wasn’t a token appointee and was qualified for the job. Wharton learned to focus on his work, not other people’s expectations of him. His indignation over racism, he wrote, “cooled to small, diamond-hard ire I could usually disregard.” His advice to outsiders recruited to run organizations: Don’t make dramatic changes right away. Take time to listen and learn.
Wall Street JournalWashington PostRichard A. Cash
Doctor helped devise a simple, low-tech recipe to prevent cholera deaths
Sometimes, Cash figured, low-tech solutions were best. Sent to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in the late 1960s by the US Public Health Service, he battled to save people suffering from cholera and other diarrheal diseases. It wasn’t possible to provide IV drips to rehydrate everyone who needed it. So Cash and a colleague, David Nalin, created a simple recipe to mix salt and sugar into just the right amount of water that patients needed to drink to replace the fluids they were losing. That recipe was taught to the masses, through songs and word of mouth, and became folk wisdom. The formula has saved an estimated 50 million lives worldwide. The Lancet medical journal called it “potentially the most important medical advance this century.”
Wall Street JournalNew York Times
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