Serge Godin

Serge Godin is chairman of Canadian tech firm CGI Group, which he founded in 1976 at age 26.

One of nine children, at age 12 Godin started working for his father, who had just a fifth-grade education, at the family’s sawmill.

He studied computer science and got an MBA from Quebec’s Université Laval, then worked in consulting before using $5,000 in savings to start CGI.

Godin serves as chairman of the $10.8 billion (revenue) company; he was president and CEO until 2006.

He has overseen more than 70 acquisitions, including the 1998 purchase of Bell Sygma, which nearly doubled the size of the company at the time.