10. Don Thompson

This former CEO of McDonald’s has mastered the art of the second act. Five years after he launched a food-focused venture capital company, one of its boldest investments paid off when Beyond Meat, a producer of plant-based foods, notched a $3.8 billion IPO in 2019, becoming the dominant player in the white-hot market for vegetarian foods that taste like meat. In November, talks of a multimillion-dollar collaboration between Beyond Meat and McDonald’s raised the company’s profile even more. Meanwhile, Thompson is winning in other ways: In October, Cleveland Avenue teamed up with Illinois treasurer Michael Frerichs to raise $35 million for South and West Side businesses.