David Nelms, President and COO of Discover Financial, made this year's Crain's Chicago Business tenth annual "40 Under 40" ranking (November 1, 1999 issue).

Crain's calls Nelms a "golden boy of the credit card industry," and profiles his education and achievements at Discover. In his first year, he spearheaded Discover's new advertising campaign, replacing the old "It pays to Discover" tagline; expanded operations to Europe, and was responsible for the addition of 138,000 new merchants to the Discover network during the second quarter of 1999.

Phil Purcell, quoted in the article, said, "The guy knows what he's doing. … He can go anywhere he wants. He's young, he's talented and he's running a big company right now."

Crain’s has been publishing its "40 Under 40" ranking since 1989.