Max Levchin

Benjamin Wachenje

Title: Co-founder and CEO, Affirm; chairman, Yelp

Born: July 11, 1975, Kyiv, Ukraine (then USSR)

Education: BS in computer science, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana

Early Marker: Co-founded PayPal with Peter Thiel, who with others became a group of entrepreneurs known as the PayPal Mafia.

Big Idea: Reimagining financial services from credit cards to deposit banking.

Wave of the Future: Disrupting financial services

Latest Special Reports

  • CNBC Changemakers

    CNBC Changemakers: Women Transforming Business is an annual list spotlighting women whose accomplishments have left an indelible mark on the business world.

  • Geoff Cutmore, Steve Sedgwick and Karen Tso lead you into the open of the European markets.

  • The Just 100 is an annual ranking of America’s largest publicly traded companies on issues that define 'just' business behavior and reflect the priorities of the American public, produced in partnership with research nonprofit Just Capital.

CNBC25: Rebels, Icons and Leaders