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The 16 most successful alumni from the London School of Economicshttps://www.businessinsider.in/the-16-most-successful-alumni-from-the-london-school-of-economics/billionaire-investor-george-soros-moved-to-london-from-native-hungary-in-1947-after-graduating-from-lse-in-1952-he-moved-to-the-us-where-he-opened-soros-fund-management-soros-currently-ranks-among-the-30-richest-people-in-the-world-according-to-bloombergs-billionaires-index-/slidelist/46203589.cms2021-07-26T12:44:11+05:30

The 16 most successful alumni from the London School of Economics

Jul 26, 2021, 12:44 IST

Billionaire investor George Soros moved to London from native Hungary in 1947. After graduating from LSE in 1952, he moved to the US where he opened Soros Fund Management. Soros currently ranks among the 30 richest people in the world, according to Bloomberg's billionaires index.

Mick Jagger was studying at LSE when he began playing with the Rolling Stones in 1961. At first, he played with the Stones just on weekends and attended classes during the week, but he ultimately dropped out to pursue his music career.

Sir David Attenborough enrolled at LSE in 1964, when he was already a broadcaster for BBC. He started a degree in anthropology through a part-time course, but decided to leave after two terms to become the director of BBC Two.

Janet Napolitano took an exchange year at LSE in 1978. She was US Secretary of Homeland Security from 2009 to 2013, and she is now President of the University of California.

Stelios Haji-Ioannou is the founder of easyJet, one of Europe's leading budget airlines. Born in Athens, he moved to London in 1984 to undertake a degree at LSE.

Jay Bregman is the founder and CEO of Hailo, the taxi app company. He previously founded and directed eCourier, a British express courier service. He holds a MSc in Communications from LSE.

Cherie Blair is the wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. She studied law at LSE and graduated in 1975. She is a distinguished barrister and chairs the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, a network that helps female entrepreneurs in developing countries.

Kaushik Basu is the senior vice president and chief economist at the World Bank. He previously worked as an adviser to the Indian government and taught at Cornell University. He graduated from LSE in 1974.

George Papandreu was prime minister of Greece from 2009 to 2011. He previously served as foreign minister from 1999 to 2004, securing the Olympic bid for the 2004 summer Games in Athens. He holds an MA in Sociology of Development from LSE.

Juan Manuel Santos is the current president of Colombia, after he served as finance minister for his country from 2000 to 2002. He studied as a postgraduate at LSE Economic department.

Robert Mundell won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1999, for his work on monetary and fiscal policies. He graduated from LSE in 1956 and is regarded as one of the first theorists of the common currency market.

Salil Shetty is the current Secretary General at Amnesty International. While at LSE he studied Social Policy and Planning and graduated with distinction.

Anne Applebaum is a former editor of The Spectator and a Pulitzer prize winning journalist for her work on the Soviet gulags. Born in Washington DC, she studied at LSE as a Marshall scholar earning an MA in international relations.

Rajiv Shah is the current administrator of USAID, the US government agency for international development. He said that while studying at LSE in 1993 he experienced two key events in his life: he got his worst mark ever and met his wife.

Daron Acemoglu is a Turkish economist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He won the Nemmer Prize for economics in 2012 and graduated from LSE in 1990.

David Levering Lewis is a Pulitzer prize winning author for his work on the American sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois. He currently teaches at New York University and received a PhD in history from LSE in 1962.

BONUS: Arguably, the most famous LSE alumnus of all time is American President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who studied in the general course in 1935, before joining the US military in WWII. JFK was assassinated in 1963 after taking office in 1961.

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