Top 10: CEOs Under 30

The CEO position has often been a position led by extensive industry tenure, helmed by those who have become experts in their field of business after years of practice.

However, ambition is not restricted to age. Those who achieve the title of CEO at an earlier age have been known not to skip leadership steps, but to move through the business ranks much faster.

In a 2023 study by Snow Xue Han, an Associate Director in Corporate and Internship Relationship at San Francisco State University, she found that young CEOs not only excel but often thrive in leadership positions of recently-formed companies.

Snow also found that companies led by young CEOs exhibit higher growth rates in sales and assets and invest more capital and take more risks than their older counterparts in more established firms.

In this list, we look at 10 CEOs under 30 across several global industries who are leading the way in company management, growth and innovation, despite their relatively shorter life and business experience.

10. Olivia Cleary

Company:  The Clearly Collective

Revenue: US$1m

Location: New York City, US

As founder and CEO of The Clearly Collective, Olivia Cleary began her career in fashion as a graduate from the University of Virginia School of Architecture.

What began as an experiment in illustration and architectural storytelling developed into a passion for design and craftsmanship using heirloom grade silk textiles for bespoke commission, cultural institutions and global brands.

Olivia’s leadership is focused on balancing the brand’s creative voice and its operational direction while supporting woman-led networks to help scale the brand and preserve its original artistic intent.

9. Matthew Wilson

Company: Jack & Jill

Revenue: US$1m

Location: London, UK

As CEO, Matt has designed Jack & Jill to help professionals reach the next stage of the career and assist companies in hiring the ideal candidate.

Matt founded the company to address the inefficiency and bias of traditional recruitment, with the aim to reimagine the process using basic principles, not automating existing flawed processes.

Within six months of launch, the company’s AI agent, Jack, had spoken with 49,000 candidates across London's tech ecosystem.

8. Hamzah Selim

Company:  Mindstep

Revenue: US$2.05m

Location: London, UK

Hamzah Selim co-founded Mindstep with Aaron Lin, with the aim to revolutionise digital mental health support.

The platform is designed to act as a “pocket neurologist”, using eye-tracking technology to screen for neurological indicators before delivering the user a clinical-grade assessment for conditions like concussion, anxiety, depression and dementia.

Since its founding, the platform has raised more than US$7m from investors and by 2026 has achieved more than 200,000 global downloads.

Hamzah believes the app is a way offer doctors a tool which can boost efficiency, rather than replacing them.

7. Marcelo Gaia

Company: Mirror Palais

Revenue: US$3.6m

Location: New York City, US

Marcelo Gaia spent a decade working as a stylist before founding Mirror Palais in 2019, with the mission to create ethereal, nostalgic designs for the female role models who helped inspire his creative pursuits.

His designs are often made from vintage fabrics and feature references to 18th-century art and 90s glamour, all made to help drive discussions of equal wages, waste reduction and craftsmanship to the fashion industry.

As CEO, Marcelo emphasises the importance of brand ethics, environmentally-conscious production methods and the celebration of the feminine form for all shapes and sizes.

6. Alessandro Morra

Company: Ascento

Revenue: US$4.3m

Location: Zurich, Switzerland

Alessandro Mora is CEO and one of the co-founders of Ascento, a Switzerland-based robotics company specialising in AI and outdoor security.

Transitioning the idea of Ascento from a student research project to a high-value, commercial venture, Alessandro has positioned the company as a global leader in security tech.

The company currently has deployments across Europe and the US for some of the largest companies in the world, with a particular focus on hyperscalers, data centres and airports.

5. Angela Acosta

Company: Morado

Revenue: US$5m

Location: Bogota, Columbia

Angela Acosta has overseen Morado’s direction since she first founded it in 2022. Her mission with the platform was to play an instrumental role in revolutionising beauty commerce in Latin America.

Under her leadership, the company serves as a vertical marketplace and financial ally for businesses across the region, providing more than 30,000 stylists and salon owners access to credit and wholesale inventory.

Known in the industry for her personable approach and relentless work ethic, Angela’s leadership skills and ability to attract high-value talent has helped position Morado as a leader in the South America beauty industry.

4. Simon Nuber

Company: Medverse

Revenue: US$5m

Location: Munich, Germany

Simon Nuber launched Medverse in 2022 with the aim to digitise contemporary healthcare training.

Under his direction, the company has trained more than 55,000 healthcare professionals across 14 countries and by using a scalable robotics digital model, Simon helped bridge the gap between traditional clinical education with a more data and performance insight approach.

Simon believes in the importance of driving education within the medical world with collaboration and innovation through immersive technologies.

3. Rajat Bhageria

Company: Chef Robotics

Revenue: US$19.1m

Location: San Francisco, US

As CEO of Chef Robotics, Rajat Bhageria founded the company in 2019 with the goal in mind to automate commercial kitchens with AI and innovative robotics.

Prior to founding the robotics company, Rajat founded ThirdEye, a tech company for the visually impaired. His time there helped inform his approach on providing people with flexible and assistive robotics to help labour-focused operations.

Rajat is a vocal advocate for “practical AI” and hopes to leverage the technology to automate repetitive back-of-house tasks while maintaining culinary consistency for hospitality-focused businesses.

2. Miha Jagodic

Company: Bloq.it

Revenue: US$100m

Location: Lisbon, Portugal

One of the fastest-growing international smart locker manufacturers and one the fastest growing companies in Europe, Miha Jagodic has established Bloq.it as a powerhouse in smart tech solutions.

Since founding the company in 2019, Miha’s leadership has ensured the deployment of the brand’s lockers across multiple continents and landed it major partnerships with companies like Vinted and DHL.

Miha believes agility is the key to a sustainable advantage in an era of constant tech reinvention and that AI should assist human capabilities, not replace them.

1. Aidan Gomez

Company: Cohere

Revenue: US$240m

Location: Toronto, Canada

One of the of the most influential voices in the 2020s AI boom, Aidan Gomez founded Cohere in 2019, an enterprise-focused AI platform that has since become one of the fastest growing AI companies in the world.

Aidan has gone from a university researcher to a billionaire-backed AI CEO in less than 10 years, with a company valued at US$5bn that stands as one of OpenAI and Anthropic’s biggest competitors.

In 2017, he published the industry-renowned paper “Attention is All You Need”, which introduced the Transformer architecture that powers ChatGPT, GPT-4, and almost every current large language model.

Aidan has stated that AI integration isn’t unlike the introduction of the steam engine at the beginning of the 20th century, saying that like the engine, AI will revolutionise the way work is done and will further reduce the laborious and cognitive challenges humanity regularly faces.