Judy Faulkner

Venture capital? Wall Street? Acquisitions? She said no to all and still built a $7.8B healthcare empire.

In 1979, Judy Faulkner started a tiny software company in a Wisconsin basement with just $70,000 in savings and two part-time assistants.

Today, Epic Systems supports the medical records of over 325 million people and powers top hospitals like Johns Hopkins, Mayo Clinic, and Cleveland Clinic.

But Faulkner didn’t just build a company. She built it her way.

While others chased venture capital, Faulkner refused.

Epic has never taken outside funding, never made an acquisition, and has remained privately held for over 45 years.

Investors told her she could grow faster, but she didn’t want to lose control.

And she proved them wrong.

Epic is now a $4.9B revenue giant.

A self-taught programmer with a master’s in computer science, Faulkner wrote the company’s original code herself.

She always loved solving problems, once saying: “I always liked making things out of clay, and the computer was clay of the mind.”

Her commitment to innovation goes beyond software.

Epic’s headquarters is a creativity-fueled campus with a Hogwarts-style Great Hall, a treehouse, and even an "elevator to hell".

Faulkner believes happy employees create better products, and studies back her up.

But she’s not just a business leader, she’s a philanthropist.

In 2015, she signed The Giving Pledge, vowing to donate 99% of her wealth to charity.

In 2020, she launched The Roots & Wings Foundation to support food security, healthcare, and education.

At 81, Faulkner still leads Epic with no plans to retire.

She sits on the Health IT Policy Committee, the National Academy of Medicine’s Leadership Roundtable, and the UW-Madison Board of Visitors.