captain of industry

plural captains of industry

1. A prominent business person who owns, or is the highest-ranking executive of, one or more major firms, especially one who has considerable wealth and influence.

   It was he who maneuvered a captain of industry, steelmaker Francis Mer, rather than a government mandarin into the finance minister's job.

   2002 June 3, James Graff, “The Power Behind the Throne”, in Time

   2 more examples

   Plugson, who has indomitably spun Cotton merely to gain thousands of pounds . . . was a Captain of Industry, born member of the Ultimate genuine Aristocracy of this Universe, could he have known it!

   1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. X”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk)

   Walter Bassett was the greatest captain of industry west of the Rockies, and was one of the small group that controlled the nation in everything but name.

   1910, Jack London, “Goliah,”, in Revolution and Other Essays

   Synonyms: magnate, tycoon, merchant prince, taipan, robber baron