9 powerful CEOs 40 or younger

James Bond was a celluloid sensation before they were even born, but these execs have already risen to the heights of corporate power. On the fast track Larry Page was pursuing a Ph.D. at Stanford University in 1998 when he teamed up with classmate Sergey Brin to create a new search engine, which they nicknamed BackRub. They later decided to call it Google, a play on the word "googol" -- which is the mathematical term for a 1 followed by a hundred zeros. It signified the enormous volume of information they hoped to eventually make available through their site. They succeeded. Google is now the most visited website in the world (with more than a billion visitors each month) and one of the most valuable tech companies, with a market cap of $265 billion. Thanks to Google's enormous success, Page tops this year's list from Forbes.com of the most powerful CEOs who have not yet turned 41. This year's ranking features executives who, like Page, started their companies. Others joined established companies and made meteoric ascents. For some, the path to the corner office was paved by family members who preceded them at the company. Read the slide show, published Feb. 25, for a closer look at the most prominent leaders of publicly traded companies aged 40 and younger.