Bill Ready

Ready, who grew up in rural Kentucky and did not know how to use a computer until he got to college, landed at the $46 billion payments giant in 2013 when it acquired the company he ran, Braintree, for $800 million. He’s since been credited for ­turning millennial favorite Venmo into the next billion-dollar payments app. With mobile payments expected to soar, Ready’s task is to help PayPal take on Apple, Google, and Samsung in the mobile wallet wars. Secret to his success: “I’ve always been willing to jump in the deep end of the pool before knowing how to swim.”