United StatesDee Hock
A banker from the Pacific Northwest, Hock began his career at the consumer credit division of Bank of America before moving to the National Bank of Commerce in Seattle. While there, he was tasked with addressing the operational chaos of the emerging bank card industry. In 1968, he proposed a radical new structure — a decentralized, member-owned cooperative governed by a set of principles rather than by hierarchy. That structure became Visa, which Hock led as CEO from its formal launch in 1970 until his retirement in 1984. He coined the term "chaordic" (chaos + order) to describe this organizational philosophy, later writing extensively on it and founding the Chaordic Alliance after leaving Visa. A high-school dropout who never finished college, Hock was known for his intense intellectual independence and skepticism of conventional management dogma.
