David Shakarian, founder of a health food chain

David Shakarian was an Armenian-American entrepreneur who created GNC, the world-famous health and sports nutrition company. Born in 1914, he helped his family from a young age, and in the 1930s he turned a small shop into a chain selling health foods and vitamins. By 1941 the Shakarians already had 5 shops in Pittsburgh.

In the 1960s, when a healthy lifestyle began to spread in the United States, the business expanded rapidly across the whole country. In the 1970s Forbes magazine estimated his fortune at about 530 million dollars. He also invested in real estate, especially in Florida. He died in 1984. Today the company has thousands of shops in the United States and dozens of other countries.

In the photograph he wears a pinstriped suit and holds a bottle with a yogurt label.