Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen

The founder's grandson ran Lego from 1979 to 2004 and is the reason a toymaker from Billund became truly global, with themed ranges like Castle and Space, the Legoland parks and production abroad. He also presided over the overreach that followed, when too many new products and businesses nearly broke the company in the early 2000s. His decision to hand day-to-day control to an outsider, Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, in 2004 is part of why it recovered, and the family still owns three quarters of it.