Ayman Asfari

Born in Syria and armed with a Wharton MBA, Asfari joined oil production firm Petrofac in 1991, bought it out in 2001 and took it public on the London Stock Exchange in 2005. Today, the company is part of the FTSE 100 and has a market cap topping $8 billion. London-based Asfari has grown Petrofac from one plant in Tyler, Texas to a multinational with offices in China, Russia and across the Middle East. His latest focus: the abundant oilfields off the UK's continental shelf. Last year spun off Petrofac's North Sea operations to form a new company, EnQuest; its market cap is $1.7 billion. When he isn't tending to his growing oil empire, spends time in the south of France on his yacht.