GREEN RANKING FOR 2009
Ranking: 40=
Worth: £900m
Green investment: Natural resources

Tom Golisano used $3,000 and a credit card to start his Paychex company in 1971. It provides payroll services to small businesses and has grown to be the second-largest payroll processor in America. A New Yorker, Golisano co-owns the Buffalo Sabres hockey team. He is best known in the city as a founding member of the Independence Party of New Yorkand ran for governor of New York in 1994, 1998 and 2002, spending a combined $93 million on the three failed campaigns. In 2007 he gave $10m to the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York to create an institute to enhance environmental sustainability in manufacturing. The idea is to support innovative research into ways to use natural resources with care, caution and wisdom. Golisano was worth £1.2 billion last October but, with Paychex shares having fallen nearly 30% since Forbes did its sums, we have cut Golisano back to £900m.