From the beginning Chairman Kimsey had groomed Steve Case to lead the company, in 1991, Kimsey named Case as his successor and the young marketing executive gradually took over AOL's day-to-day operations. In 1993 he took charge as CEO, while Kimsey stayed on as Chairman. In 1997 Kimsey retired and Steve Case assumed full duties as both Chairman and CEO

Under Case's leadership, America Online led the industry in such areas as consumer privacy, integrating technology into schools and ensuring the safety of children on the Internet. Case had succeeded in making the personal computer, connected through the Internet, as much a part of the American home as television or the telephone. He quickly identified the next challenges, acquiring broadband access for his user base, and integrating the old media world of the film and music industries with the new media world of computers and the Internet.

In addition to his far-flung business interests, Steve Case now devotes much of his energy to philanthropic activities. In the same year as the Time Warner merger, he teamed once again with his very first business partner, his brother Dan, to found Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure (ABC2), an organization that applies an entrepreneurial model to the funding of brain cancer research. Daniel Case succumbed to the disease in 2002, but Steve carries on their work, serving as Chairman of both ABC2 and The Case Foundation, a private family foundation he established with his wife Jean in 1997. Although he has made his home in the Washington, D.C. area for more than 20 years, he remains actively involved in the life of his home state, investing in enterprises that provide new operating models for agriculture and sustainable development in Hawaii

WYD Team