The Most Notable Career Comebacks Of 2025 |
Just as hard and fast a career can crash, it can also rebound. We’re bringing back our list of most notable career comebacks, the individuals whose return to the corner office or center stage highlights the many ways business leaders and public figures can redeem their careers.
Not all attempts are successful. Andrew Cuomo, for example, made a play for a political comeback in a run for New York City mayor. The former Governor of New York resigned in 2021 after multiple sexual misconduct allegations. He’s largely been out of the limelight for the past four years until he announced his candidacy. But Cuomo lost the Democratic primary to Zohran Mamdani, and whiffed again in the general election by a 9.5 percentage-point margin.
And then there’s Jim McGreevy, former governor of New Jersey, who attempted a similar political reboot. After resigning in 2004 over an extramarital affair with a man, he ran for Jersey City mayor under a campaign slogan of “second chances.” He lost out in this month’s runoff election.
Some are taking baby bounceback steps. Elizabeth Holmes’ partner, Billy Evans, reportedly raised millions of dollars for a startup that is yet to officially launch using AI in medical testing, a company eerily similar to Holmes’s Theranos. She’s currently still serving an 11-year sentence in federal prison for misleading investors in her blood testing startup.
But we’re here to highlight those who have successfully turned a new page. Whether it was because of a presidential pardon from President Donald Trump (who was on our Comeback list in 2024), a successful IPO or an international prize, we’ve highlighted six who are bringing their careers and businesses back to the top.
Charles Ergen, CEO of Echostar
Telecommunications billionaire Charles Ergen has more than quadrupled his wealth to $14 billion this year after a timely sale of EchoStar spectrum licenses to AT&T brought him back into investors’ good graces. The company was in........