Herb Alpert, Musician and co-founder of A&M Records

Herb Alpert is an American musician most associated with the group variously known as Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass or as Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass or just TJB for short. He is also famous for being a recording industry executive — he is the "A" of A&M Records (a recording label he and business partner Jerry Moss founded and eventually sold). Alpert's musical accomplishments include five number one hits, twenty-eight albums on the Billboard charts, eight Grammy Awards, fourteen Platinum albums and fifteen Gold albums. As of 1996, Alpert had sold 72 million albums worldwide.

Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon

Neil Armstrong is an American astronaut, test pilot, university professor, and United States Naval Aviator. He is the first person to set foot on the Moon. His first spaceflight was aboard Gemini 8 in 1966, for which he was the command pilot. On this mission, he performed the first manned docking of two spacecraft together with pilot David Scott. Armstrong's second and last spaceflight was as mission commander of the Apollo 11 moon landing mission on July 20, 1969. Armstrong is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

 Dan Bane, President of Trader Joes

Dan Bane is the Chairman and CEO of Trader Joe's. Bane graduated in 1969 from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting. Bane started at Trader Joe's in 2001 as the president of Trader Joe's West. Later in the year he was promoted to CEO of Trader Joe's. In 2002 he made a key decision to bring Charles Shaw wine to Trader Joe's. Today Trader Joe's sells 13 million cases of Charles Shaw wine per year. Bane said that one vision is what keeps the Trader Joe's team together. The vision is the importance of integrity, the company’s emphasis on its unique products, and the need to create an experience for its customers that brings them back.

 Marc Benioff, Founder and CEO of Salesforce.com

Marc Benioff is chairman and CEO of salesforce.com. He founded the company in 1999 with a vision to create an on-demand information management service that would replace traditional enterprise software technology. Benioff is regarded as the leader of what he has termed "The End of Software," the now-proven belief that multi-tenant, on-demand applications democratize information by delivering immediate benefits at reduced risks and costs.

Under Benioff's direction, salesforce.com has grown from a groundbreaking idea into a publicly traded company that is the market and technology leader in on-demand business services. For its revolutionary approach, salesforce.com has been lauded as one of BusinessWeek’s Top 100 Most Innovative Companies, named No. 7 on The Wired 40, and selected for the past two years as a Top Ten Disrupter by Forbes.

Kathleen Dannenberg, President and CEO of Response Genetics

Ms. Danenberg's began her career in molecular research and developed broad expertise in a variety of areas and applications. While at USC, Ms. Danenberg invented a breakthrough patented method to extract RNA from formalin-fixed paraffin embedded tissue specimens which became the basis for the establishment of Response Genetics, Inc. , Ms. Danenberg's research on the kinetic mechanism of thymidylate synthase provided the rationale for use of the 5-FU-leucovorin combination in colorectal cancer. She designed and carried out experiments demonstrating that 5-FU could alter RNA splicing and developed methods for using the polymerase chain reaction to quantitatively measure gene expression levels in tumor tissues. With her vision and leadership Response Genetics has become a leading provider of molecular analysis services for some of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies.

 Chris Dewolfe, Founder and CEO of Myspace 

After graduating from the University of Southern California, Christopher DeWolfe has been the chief executive officer of MySpace.com, the leading social networking and lifestyle portal on the Internet, since he co-founded the business in December 2003. Designed as a way to connect musicians and bands with their fans and enable them to share music online, MySpace quickly became the rage among teens and 20-somethings. It has since evolved into the most popular social networking website on the Internet.

 Larry Flax, Founder of California Pizza Kitchen

Mr. Larry S. Flax is a Co-founder and has been Co-President of California Pizza Kitchen Inc., since January 2004, Co-Chairman since formation in October 1985 and Co-Chief Executive Officer since July 24, 2003. Since January 2002, Mr. Flax had been Co-Founder and Co-President at LA Food Show Inc., a newly-formed restaurant operating company. From 1985 to 1996, he served as Co-Chief Executive Officer of California Pizza Kitchen Inc. Prior to becoming a restaurateur in 1985, Mr. Flax served in Los Angeles as Assistant U.S. Attorney from 1968 to 1972, Chief of Civil Rights from 1970 to 1971 and Assistant Chief of the Criminal Division for the United States Department of Justice from 1971 to 1972. Mr. Flax received his Juris Doctor Degree from the University of Southern California Law School in 1967.

 Frank Gehry, award winning architect

Frank Gehry is a Pritzker Prize winning architect based in Los Angeles. His buildings, including his private residence, have become tourist attractions. Many museums, companies, and cities seek Gehry's services as a badge of distinction, beyond the product he delivers. His best known works include the titanium-covered Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles, Experience Music Project in Seattle, Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis, Dancing House in Prague, Czech Republic, and his private residence in Santa Monica, California, which jump-started his career, lifting it from the status of "paper architecture", a phenomenon which many famous architects have experienced in their formative decades through experimentation almost exclusively on paper before receiving their first major commission in later years.

 Ming Hsieh, President and Founder of Cogent Systems

Ming Hsieh, BSEE ’83, MSEE ’84, is co-founder, president, CEO and chairman of the board of Cogent, Inc., one of the top providers of fingerprint identification systems in the United States. In 1987 he founded AMAX Information Technologies with former USC classmates and engineers from his uncle's work, TRW. Serving as its vice president, AMAX created servers, storage systems and related hardware, but Hsieh realized there was a need for software to go with his hardware. As a result, with another fellow USC classmate, he founded Cogent Systems Inc. which offered fully automated, high-speed biometric fingerprint system. The company began receiving numerous government contracts and now includes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FBI and Royal Canadian Mounted Police amongst its customers.

 George Lucas, visionary filmmaker

George Lucas's devotion to timeless storytelling and cutting-edge innovation has resulted in some of the most successful and beloved films of all time. His films celebrate the boundless potential of the individual to overcome any limitations -- something he firmly believes. As a storyteller, visionary, and innovator, George Lucas’ own imagination has led to the phenomenally successful Star Wars saga. For the first Star Wars film in 1977, Mr. Lucas surpassed the limitations of filmmaking and created his own visual effects company, Industrial Light & Magic, delivering the hundreds of shots required to make his vision a reality. He is also the creator of the highly successful Indiana Jones films and the TV series, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.

 Mike Markkula, Former CEO and angel investor of Apple Computer, Inc.

Mike Markkula is an angel investor who provided early critical funding for Apple. Markkula made millions on stock options he acquired as a marketing manager for Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel, and retired at 32. He was lured out of retirement after visiting Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs in their garage. In 1977, Markkula brought his business expertise along with $91,000 and guaranteed a bank line of credit of $250,000 and became a one-third owner of Apple.

 Paul Orfalea, Founder of Kinkos

Paul Orfalea founded Kinko's in 1970 with a simple idea: provide college students with products and services they need at a competitive price. The space that Orfalea rented for his copy business was so small that the copy machine had to be lugged out onto the sidewalk. From its modest beginnings, Kinko's is now the world's leading business services chain. Today, there are over 1,700 Kinko's worldwide. Much of Kinko's success can be traced directly to Orfalea's unique business philosophy that was based on the founder's freethinking, creative style. Orfalea's theories and instincts on how to operate a successful business were grounded in his passion for retailing, his insistence on taking care of his co-workers and customers, and a sharp eye for opportunity. Through Paul Orfalea's original leadership, Kinko's has taken an exemplary leading role in environmental responsibility.

 Andrew Viterbi, Co-Founder of  Qualcomm

In July 1985, Dr. Viterbi co-founded QUALCOMM Incorporated, a developer and manufacturer of mobile satellite communications and digital wireless telephony, where he served as Vice Chairman until 2000 and as Chief Technical Officer until 1996. Under his leadership, QUALCOMM received international recognition for innovative technology in the areas of digital wireless communication systems and products based on Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technologies. Andrew Viterbi currently serves as President of the Viterbi Group, LLC, a company he co-founded in 2000 with his daughter, Dr. Audrey Viterbi. The Viterbi Group advises and invests in startup companies, predominantly in the wireless communications and network infrastructure fields.