Jim Sinegal, cofounder and CEO of Costco Wholesale, was the driving force behind Costco's 25-year march to become the fourth largest retailer in the United States and the eighth largest in the world. He was far from the stereotypical CEO. A grandfatherly 71-year-old, Sinegal dressed casually and unpretentiously, often going to the office or touring Costco stores wearing an open-collared cotton shirt that came from a Costco bargain rack and sporting a standard employee name tag that only said "Jim." His informal dress, mustache, gray hair, and unimposing appearance made it easy for Costco shoppers to mistake him for a store clerk. He answered his own phone, once telling ABC News reporters, "If a customer's calling and they have a gripe, don•t you think they kind of enjoy the fact that I picked up the phone and talked to them'?"