Captain Of Industry Meaning

(idiomatic) A prominent business person who owns or is the highest-ranking executive of one or more major firms, especially one who has considerable wealth and influence.

Example: 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. X:
  Plugson, who has indomitably spun Cotton merely to gain thousands of pounds . . . was a Captain of Industry, born member of the Ultimate genuine Aristocracy of this Universe, could he have known it!
1910, Jack London, "Goliah," in Revolution and Other Essays:
  Walter Bassett was the greatest captain of industry west of the Rockies, and was one of the small group that controlled the nation in everything but name.
2002, James Graff, "The Power Behind the Throne," Time, 3 Jun:
  It was he who maneuvered a captain of industry, steelmaker Francis Mer, rather than a government mandarin into the finance minister's job.