Alain Bouchard

Alain Bouchard stepped down as president and CEO of his convenience store conglomerate Alimentation Couche-Tard in September 2014. Still, he says he will maintain an active role as executive chairman of the company he and three friends founded in 1980. Bouchard made his fortune by snatching up competitors, including the Circle K line of convenience stores in 2003 and Scandinavian fuel and retail giant Statoil in 2012. In the past year, Couche-Tard continued its expansion with the acquisition of 15 South Carolina stores from Garvin Oil Company. It now oversees nearly 8,500 convenience stores throughout North America and Europe. Bouchard got his start stocking shelves at his brother's franchised Perrette store in Bois-des-Filion, Quebec before moving on to another Quebec operator, Provi-Soir, and eventually setting out on his own to found what would become Couche-Tard.