Can you imagine rising to the position of a CEO and being fired by your shareholders from a company you built from the ground to the top by yourself?
It’s crazy, right? So, imagine how these guys must have felt when their boards or shareholders fired them.
Now, the founder of the Binance cryptocurrency exchange is about to join other company founders who lost their positions in their own companies.
Binance chief executive, Changpeng Zhao, is expected to lose his position in the company after pleading guilty in court.
Have You Read: Cryptocurrency: Crypto Wallet Downloads On A Free Fall
Binance is under investigation for money laundering and Zhao is ready to take the fall for the company.
Zhao would plead guilty to violating US anti-money laundering rules in a $4.3 billion civil lawsuit filed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
This would end investigations into Binance, which was created in 2017 and cornered much of the crypto-trading market, turning Zhao into a billionaire.
The implication is that at the end of the day, Changpeng Zhao would have lost his position as Binance’s chief executive.
Interestingly, Zhao is not alone, as some persons have been in this position before.
Below is a list of some top companies whose founders have been forced out of the companies.
List Of CEOs Fired From Their Companies
One thing that is striking is that most of these companies on our list today are located in the United States of America
Sam Altman (OpenAI)
OpenAI is an American artificial intelligence research organisation that was founded in 2015 by Sam Altman.
Altman was fired as the CEO of OpenAI in a deliberative review process by the board.
Steve Jobs (Apple)
Apple is the world’s largest company by market capitalisation, with US$394.3 billion, it is the largest technology company by 2022 revenue.
It is an American company that produces products like the iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, Apple TV, macOS, iOS, and lots of other stuff.
The company’s board fired Jobs following a clash with the board of directors.
The grounds for his ousting were attributed to Jobs’ confrontational management style and perceived deficiencies in interpersonal skills.
Jack Dorsey (Twitter)
Jack Dorsey co-founded Twitter with Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass in 2006 and the company made him a billionaire.
Also, he stepped down as Twitter CEO in 2021 and supported Elon Musk’s takeover of the company.
Dorsey runs the financial services company Block and is famous for his unusual life of luxury.
Travis Kalanick (Uber)
If you are trying to get somewhere and you need a ride, then call an Uber.
Indeed, this App has saved many from the stress of driving.
Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp founded Uber in 2009 as a ride-hailing service.
But investors forced Kalanick to resign in 2017. There were a series of scandals and complaints of sexual harassment at the company hanging around his neck.
You May Also Like: Google Company Is Working On A New Technology
Jerry Yang (Yahoo)
Yahoo was one of the pioneers of the early Internet era in the 1990s.
The Yahoo website was founded in 1994 in California, U.S.A. by Jerry Yang and David Filo.
Yang did not give a reason for his departure but left as the company underwent a strategic review.
Those are some of the CEOs fired after rising to that height in the company they founded or co-founded.