In 2009, Scottrade placed 60th in Fortune's Top '100 Best Companies to Work For' List, slipping two spots from its previous rank of 58th in 2008. According to Fortune, The major contributor to making the 2009 list was Scottrade's ability to shake the turmoil on Wall Street and achieve its 20 year milestone on October 10th of paying quarterly bonuses and never having a layoff. Other factors were 25% job growth (390 new jobs) and zero employees outside of the U.S. Scottrade" Fortune 2 FEB 2009 [3]
In 2008-2009, "Scottrade was ranked No. 1 in investor satisfaction with online investing services for the eighth time since 2001, according to J. D. Power and Associates' 2008 Online Investor Satisfaction Study." [4]
In 2008, Fortune announced "that Scottrade, a leading online investment firm, has been ranked 58th on the 11th annual '100 Best Companies to Work For' list." One of the primary reasons for the ranking, according to the Business Wire article, was job growth. Scottrade hired 46% more people in 2007 than 2006, promoted over 500 employees in 2007, and disclosed that over 20% of Scottrade branch managers "began their Scottrade careers as interns." [5]
Recently Scottrade was also selected by Computerworld magazine's 2008 16th best place to work in IT. Many things were considered when rating the work environment for technology professionals such as benefits, diversity, career development, training and retention. In addition to a comprehensive questionnaire regarding company offerings, Computerworld conducted an extensive survey of Scottrade’s IT workers.[6]

Wall Street is a street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. It runs east from Broadway to South Street on the East River, through the historical center of the Financial District. It is the first permanent home of the New York Stock Exchange; over time Wall Street became the name of the surrounding geographic neighborhood.[1] Wall Street is also shorthand (or a metonym) for the "influential financial interests" of the American financial industry, which is centered in the New York City area.[2]
Several major U.S. stock and other exchanges remain headquartered on Wall Street and in the Financial District, including the NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX, NYMEX, and NYBOT.

William Henry "Bill" Gates III (born October 28, 1955)[2] is an American business magnate, philanthropist, and chairman[3] of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen. He is ranked consistently one of the world's wealthiest people[4] and the wealthiest overall as of 2009.[1] During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and remains the largest individual shareholder with more than 8 percent of the common stock.[5] He has also authored or co-authored several books.
Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. Although he is admired by many, a number of industry insiders criticize his business tactics, which they consider anti-competitive, an opinion which has in some cases been upheld by the courts (see Criticism of Microsoft).[6][7] In the later stages of his career, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000.
Bill Gates stepped down as chief executive officer of Microsoft in January, 2000. He remained as chairman and created the position of chief software architect. In June, 2006, Gates announced that he would be transitioning from full-time work at Microsoft to part-time work and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He gradually transferred his duties to Ray Ozzie, chief software architect and Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer. Gates' last full-time day at Microsoft was June 27, 2008. He remains at Microsoft as non-executive chairman.

Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs (born February 24, 1955) is an American businessman, and the co-founder and chief executive officer of Apple Inc. Jobs previously served as CEO of Pixar Animation Studios.
In the late 1970s, Jobs, with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, created one of the first commercially successful personal computers. In the early 1980s, Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of the mouse-driven graphical user interface.[11] After losing a power struggle with the board of directors in 1985, Jobs resigned from Apple and founded NeXT, a computer platform development company specializing in the higher education and business markets. NeXT's subsequent 1997 buyout by Apple Computer Inc. brought Jobs back to the company he co-founded, and he has served as its CEO since then. Steve Jobs was listed as Fortune Magazine's Most Powerful Businessman of 2007.[12]
In 1986, he acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd which was spun off as Pixar Animation Studios.[13] He remained CEO and majority shareholder until its acquisition by the Walt Disney Company in 2006.[2] Jobs is currently a member of Walt Disney Company's Board of Directors.[14][15]
Jobs' history in business has contributed greatly to the myths of the idiosyncratic, individualistic Silicon Valley entrepreneur, emphasizing the importance of design and understanding the crucial role aesthetics play in public appeal. His work driving forward the development of products that are both functional and elegant has earned him a devoted following.[16]
In mid-January 2009, Jobs took a 5 month leave of absence from Apple to undergo a liver transplant.[17]