Hometown heroes.

• Position: Notable Utahns

25 Notable Utahns Take Global Business World by Storm Whether they come out of the state or to it, Utah has more than its fair share of groundbreakers. Some were born and raised in the state, others educated at our universities, and a few found Utah a good place to start a business. Whatever the connection, these notable Utahns found success and forged new paths in their respective industries.

Alan Ashton

Utah Connection: Native and current Utahn

Alan Ashton co-founded WordPerfect and is a former BYU professor. He and his wife, Karen, founded Thanksgiving Point.

Edwin Catmull

Utah Connection: U alumnus

Edwin Catmull is a pioneer in computer graphics and was the CTO at Pixar when it was acquired by Disney Animation Studios, where he is now president.

Mario Capecchi

Utah Connection: U professor

Mario Capecchi is the 2007 Nobel Prize winner in physiology or medicine. In 1973, he joined the University of Utah School of Medicine, where he became a Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics and Biology and co-chairman of the Department of Human Genetics.

Nolan Bushnell

Utah Connection: Native Utahn and U alumnus

Nolan Bushnell is the co-founder of Atari and founder of Chuck E. Cheese.

Patrick M. Byrne

Utah Connection: Business founder Patrick Byrne is the president, CEO and chairman of the board of O.co(Overstock.com).

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Gary Crittenden

Utah Connection: BYU alumnus Gary Crittenden served as CFO at Citigroup from 2007 to 2009. He is now a managing director at the California office of Huntsman Gay Global Capital.

Jim Clark

Utah Connection: U alumnus

Jim Clark co-founded Silicon Graphics and Netscape, and founded Healtheon.

Jonathan C. Coon

Utah Connection: BYU alumnus Jonathan Coon is the CEO and founder of Utah-based 1-800 CONTACTS.

Charlie Denson

Utah Connection: USU alumnus Charles Denson has been with Nike since 1979 and worked his way up the company until he was named president in 2001.

David Evans

Utah Connection; U alumnus David Evans was co-founder of both the computer science department at the University of Utah and Evans & Sutherland.

Clayton Christensen

Utah Connection: Native Utahn and BYU alumnus Clayton Christensen is the Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He is the author of The Innovator's Dilemma and other books.

Robert Jarvik

Utah Connection: U alumnus and scientist

Robert Jarvik earned his doctorate from the University of Utah, where he developed the Jarvik-7...