The faces of 2023

Four of the key figures who moved markets over the past year. By Jane Lewis

The Oppenheimer of the digital age

Who was the most significant CEO of the year? It’s a “no-brainer”, says MarketWatch. In the 12 months since OpenAI publicly launched its ChatGPT chatbot, and watched it go viral, it has upended the established pecking order of Silicon Valley, inspired a surge in AI investment that revitalised the flagging US stockmarket, and turned established notions of what the future might look like on their head. No product has had as much impact since the debut of the iPhone, and Sam Altman is “the public face of this transformation”.

Altman, 38, led OpenAI out from the ivory tower – it started out as a small non-profit laboratory dedicated to academic research – and is a serial entrepreneur, known more for his investment nous than feats of engineering. His biggest early success was co-founding OK Cupid, a dating platform sold to Match for $50m in 2011. He went on to become CEO of the tech incubator Y Combinator, playing a pivotal role in establishing Airbnb, Pinterest, Asana and Reddit among others. “His superpower,” remarked one associate, “is getting people on side, shaping narratives, pushing situations into the shape that works for him”. New York magazine called him “the Oppenheimer of our age”. Still, it was the frenzied soap opera surrounding Altman’s bombshell firing, and then rehiring, in November that really established his own market value – even if he found the shock “incredibly painful”. Ultimately, no one connected to OpenAI (not least Microsoft) dared risk his defection to a rival.

The rise and fall of the crypto king

A mere six months before the implosion of his FTX crypto exchange in November 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) was compared to the legendary US banker John Pierpont Morgan: “the last man standing” in crypto. Yet the reality behind his eccentric-genius façade was that his empire – FTX and its sister hedge fund Alameda – was “a flimsy front for rampant, irresponsible risk-taking” and fraud, says The Guardian. “In a way, his greatest feat of genius was being so eccentric that he threw so many people” off the scent.

SBF graduated from MIT in 2014 and took a job as a trader at Jane Street Capital, before setting up a fund to arbitrage opportunities in the fragmented nascent crypto market in 2019 – taking several Jane Street colleagues with him. In 2020, FTX was worth “just” $1.2bn, says the Financial Times. By 2022, its valuation in funding rounds had hit $32bn. SBF was wacky, but he also conveyed respectability – until a spike in withdrawals by customers exposed an $8bn hole in FTX’s accounts.

By then, says The Economist, many close to SBF “knew what was going on” and foresaw how it would end. “Those who did not were horrified when they found out.” So was the jury, which took just four hours to convict him on seven complicated charges of financial fraud this November. The crypto king’s dazzling rise and fall took just over three years. He now faces a maximum sentence of 110 years in jail to ponder it.

The Lennon to Warren Buffett’s McCartney

The death of Charlie

Munger, aged 99, robbed the financial world of its most enduring and unique double-act. For nearly 60 years, Munger was Warren

Buffett’s business partner, consigliere and friend, says

The Economist. When the

Berkshire Hathaway “faithful” flocked to the company’s annual jamboree in Omaha, Nebraska, they came for Buffett’s “folksy genius” and for the more taciturn Munger’s “killer zingers” – pithy oneliners intended to seal a debate. But he was a lot more than just Warren Buffett’s sidekick. Indeed, Buffett, who nicknamed him the “Abominable No-man” when they disagreed over investments, credited him with Berkshire’s strategy “blueprint”. Munger’s great contribution, says the Financial Times, was steering Buffett away from the “cigar-butt” theory inherited from his mentor, Benjamin Graham – that it was worth buying any low-valued stock, if you could get “one last drag” from it. “Forget buying fair businesses at wonderful prices,” was his view. “Instead, buy wonderful businesses at fair prices.” Without that insight, Berkshire wouldn’t have evolved into the $780bn powerhouse it became.

Munger, who began his career as a lawyer, shared common roots in Omaha with Buffett, but the pair didn’t meet until adulthood. Both were impressed with each other, but it was their shared sense of humour that really clicked. Like the best duos – think Lennon and McCartney – “their strengths complemented each other”, says The Economist, “producing something almost magical”.

The phenomenal triumph of Taylor Swift

“She was like the weather, she was everywhere,” observed Time magazine, as it named Taylor Swift its Person of the Year. “Swift’s accomplishments as an artist – culturally, critically and commercially – are so legion that to recount them seems almost beside the point.” In 2023 she capitalised on them, says The New York Times. Her Eras Tour was so popular it proved too much for ticket broker Ticketmaster to handle; and she re-recorded her 2014 album 1989, which then broke sales records, sealing her reputation as a super-smooth business operator.

Swift, 33, whose career began at 14 when she persuaded her parents to move to Nashville, has long been known for taking on – and beating – the suits of the music industry in her quest to retain control of her music rights and back catalogue. But latterly she has also emerged as “an unparalleled marketing genius”, says Fortune. “While many artists follow a tried-and-true playbook – social post, press junket, tour – Swift employs an ever-changing burlesque act of selectively revealing details while maintaining an aura of mystery and excitement.” She is constantly reinventing herself. While these “savvy image shifts” keep existing “Swifties” hooked, she uses carefully selected “strategic collaborations” to broaden her fan base – partnering with brands such as Coca-Cola and Apple that resonate with her image and values. According to Forbes, Swift’s empire is now valued at about $1bn. Her phenomenal legacy – as a songwriter, artist, businesswoman, influencer – is secure.