Mayer Amschel Rothschild

Born in February 1743 or 1744, Mayer Amschel Rothschild started as a banker in a German Jewish community with little access to the continent's financial centers. He founded what became the Rothschild banking dynasty, though its dominance came later — between the 1820s and 1870s, well after his death in September 1812. Forbes would call him a "founding father of international finance" and rank him seventh on its list of the twenty most influential businessmen of all time. He didn't live to see the zenith, but he built the foundation.