CLASS OF 2019

Naomi Osaka

Osaka, fresh off beating Serena Williams to claim the 2018 U.S. Open women’s title, was ranked the No. 1 tennis player in the world at just 21 years old.

Osaka is the highestpaid female athlete ever, earning more than any previous such woman in both 2020 and 2021. While her ranking dropped to No. 13 in 2021, her star power and influence rose when she pulled out of the French Open after being threatened with a fine for declining press interviews; she has since became a champion of mental health.

Alex Rodrigues THEN:

At age 19, he engineered a selfdriving golf cart. Soon after, he won a Thiel Fellowship, dropped out of college and raised $2 million to pioneer selfdriving trucks. By 2018, his Embark Trucks had completed its first crosscountry driverless haul and raised $47 million.

NOW:

Embark went public via a SPAC in November; at age 26, he’s now the youngest CEO of a publicly traded company and worth a halfbillion dollars. Embark has more than 14,000 preorders from companies.