Farewell: celebrities, tycoons and business elite who died in 2017 – from Hugh Hefner to David Rockefeller
Looking back on the biggest names in news who passed away this year
Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner, Fox News Channel CEO Roger Ailes and billionaire philanthropist David Rockefeller were among newsmakers in business, finance and public affairs who died in 2017.
The business world lost Raymond Sackler, who bought Purdue Pharma, producer of the controversial pain pill OxyContin; Taizo Nishimuro, former head of Toshiba and the Tokyo Stock Exchange; Jeffrey Brotman, co-founder of Costco Wholesale; Paul Otellini, former CEO of chipmaker Intel; and Joan Tisch, the billionaire matriarch of the clan that started Loews.
Financial leaders who died included Henry Hillman, who provided start-up funding for venture-capital pioneer Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and private-equity firm KKR & Co; Liliane Bettencourt, the L’Oreal heiress who was the world’s wealthiest woman; and James Maguire, who matched buyers and sellers of Berkshire Hathaway shares as Warren Buffett’s New York Stock Exchange floor specialist.
Among deceased public sector figures were Manuel Noriega, the Panamanian dictator who was ousted by a US invasion and imprisoned for drug trafficking; Helmut Kohl, the German chancellor who oversaw his country’s reunification after the cold war; and Zbigniew Brzezinski, former president Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser.
Here are the year’s notable deaths. A cause of death is provided when known.
January
Luc Coene, 69. Belgian economist who was a member of the European Central Bank’s supervisory unit, where he defended the stimulus policies enacted under President Mario Draghi, and a former governor of the National Bank of Belgium. Died January 5.
Mario Soares, 92. Prime minister who helped consolidate Portugal’s transition to democracy and in 1976 became the first freely elected premier after a revolution ended almost five decades of dictatorship. Died January 7.
Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, 82. The co-founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran served two terms as president and was a key ally of President Hassan Rouhani. Died January 8 from heart failure at a hospital in Tehran.
Walter Lange, 92. Fled Germany in 1948 and returned four decades later to resurrect the high-end watchmaker A. Lange & Soehne, which is now owned by Swiss luxury-goods maker Richemont. Died January 17.