Neal Aronson

Neal Aronson is the founder and principal investor behind Roark Capital, which owns 30,000 sandwich shops of Subway, Jimmy John's, Arby's and Sonic.

Aronson has led Roark, named after the ruthlessly competitive architect in Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, since he founded it two decades ago.

He remains the firm's majority owner.

Aronson is responsible for most of the restaurant industry's biggest deals of the past decade, among them Roark scooping up Carl's Jr. and Hardee's for $1.75 billion in 2013.

In December 2020, Roark spent $11.3 billion to acquire Dunkin? and Baskin-Robbins.