David Steward

Sales experience and difficult early ventures preceded WWT

Steward grew up in a large family in segregated Missouri while his father worked several manual jobs. Forbes describes a childhood with limited financial resources, followed by college and years of sales work at Missouri Pacific, Union Pacific and FedEx before Steward became an entrepreneur. ^[2]

He first acquired and started transportation-services businesses, including a company that audited freight bills. A large Union Pacific project forced Steward to build a local computer network, helping reveal how information technology could reshape business operations and pointing him toward a larger opportunity. ^[2]

Steward cofounded World Wide Technology in 1990 and supplied roughly $250,000 of startup capital from his earlier ventures. WWT began as a reseller of computing and communications equipment, with Steward taking the larger initial financial risk and retaining majority ownership. ^[2][1]

Surviving the early cash crisis preserved the founder stake

The first years were financially severe: Forbes reported unpaid bills, pressure on a credit line and even repossession of Steward's car from the company parking lot. WWT survived, won government and private-sector contracts, and then scaled rapidly as corporate technology spending expanded. ^[2]

WWT remains privately held, and Steward is still its founder and chairman. His fortune therefore comes primarily from the value of the majority stake he retained through decades of operating growth, making this a self-created ownership story with unusually well-documented early disadvantage and financial risk. ^[1][2]