Top 75 Powerful People of the World 2018

The World's Most
2018 RANKING
Source: www.forbes.com
POWERFUL
PEOPLE

Gianni Infantino
Switzerland President, FIFA

Gianni Infantino
President, FIFA Age: 48
• The most powerful man in sports makes his
first appearance on the list on the same year the
location of the 2026 World Cup is decided.
• A big proponent of Video Assistant Referee
(VAR), Infantino successfully push for the
feature to be present for the first time at the
2018 World Cup.
• Infantino took the helm at FIFA in February
2016, a few months after his predecessor, Sepp
Blatter resigned after a 17 year scandal-ridden
reign.
• Prior to his election as FIFA's chief, he was
director of legal affairs and general secretary at
the Union of European Football Associations
(UEFA).

Joko Widodo
President, Indonesia

Joko Widodo
President, Indonesia Age: 56
• The leader of the fourth most populated
country makes his debut on the list as he
prepares to run for another term for Indonesia's
highest office.
• Widodo, popularly called Jodowi, has vowed to
minimize bureaucracy and boost domestic and
foreign investments in Southeast Asia's largest
economy.
• In January 2018 a teen was sentenced to 18
months in prison for insulting him on
Facebook. The sentence drew criticism by
human rights groups.
• Prior to becoming President, Widodo was
mayor of his hometown Surakarta, and later
Governor of Indonesia's capital, Jakarta.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
IRAQ Self-proclaimed caliph, Islamic State

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
ISIS Age: 46
• The self-declared caliph of the Islamic State leads
a global terrorist network seeking to establish a
radical Islamic empire in Iraq and the Levant.
• He commandeered the planet's attention with a
series of barbaric beheadings and earned copious
amounts of cash, largely through black-market
oil sale.
• Recently, his power has been shrinking as Syrian,
Turkish and Iraqi forces, with the help from
Russia and the U.S. have doubled down on ISIS.
• Sophisticated propaganda efforts have also
helped ISIS mint new extremists capable of
carrying out terror attacks throughout the
Western world.
• The United States currently has a $25 million

Robert Mueller
Special Counsel, Justice Department, United States

Robert Mueller
Special Counsel, Justice Department, United States
• As head of the investigation of Russian
interference in the 2016 U.S. elections, his
findings could make or break the Trump
administration.
• Mueller has indicted several of the
President’s associates, and reportedly
provided the tip that led to a raid on the
President’s personal lawyer.
• Formerly served as Director of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation from 2001 to 2013,
the longest-serving director since J. Edgar
Hoover.
• Mueller served in the Marine Corps during
the Vietnam War and received the Bronze
Star Medal with Combat "V" for heroism.

Reed Hastings
CEO, Netflix
REAL TIME NET WORTH — as of 5/11/18
$3.5 B

Reed Hastings
CEO, Netflix Age: 57
• Reed Hastings, cofounder and CEO of Netflix,
revolutionized how the world watches its
entertainment.
• Hastings founded Netflix in 1995, the same year
he sold his first company, Pure Software, to
Rational Software.
• The video-streaming service offers TV shows
and films, as well as original content, like the
Emmy-winning show House of Cards.
• Netflix originally operated as a DVD
subscription service, but began streaming
content in 2007.
• The company now has more than 100 million
members in over 190 countries.

Abigail Johnson
CEO, Fidelity Investments
$13.8 B

Abigail Johnson
CEO, Fidelity Investments Age: 56
• Abigail Johnson's grandfather, Edward
Johnson II, founded mutual fund giant
Fidelity Investments in 1946.
• She reportedly worked summers at Fidelity
through college and joined full-time as an
analyst in 1988 after receiving a Harvard
M.B.A.
• She took over from her father Edward
"Ned" Johnson III as CEO in 2014 and as
chairman in 2016.
• She owns an estimated 24.5% stake of the
firm, which has $2.4 trillion in managed
assets.
• Her two siblings, Elizabeth and Edward IV,
own estimated stakes of just over 5% of

Rodrigo Duterte
President, Philippines

Rodrigo Duterte
President, Philippines Age: 73
• Duterte was elected president of the
Philippines in 2016 on the strength of a
campaign that promised execution of drug
dealers and other criminals.
• So far his war on crime has already
resulted in the killing of thousands of
people across the archipelago country.
• Duterte's raw and vulgar vocabulary keeps
him in the headlines: he called Obama
"son of a whore" and has used
homophobic slurs to describe opponents. Source: www.forbes.com

Qamar Javed Bajwa
Chief of Army Staff, Pakistan

Qamar Javed Bajwa
Chief of Army Staff, Pakistan Age: 57
• Although the president is his boss on paper,
Pakistan's chief of army staff is de facto the
most powerful person in the nuclear armed
state.
• Javed Bajwa joins the world's most powerful at
a time when the rift between India and
Pakistan is improving, partly thanks to his
efforts.
• He has a difficult task of keeping peace in the
U.S. ally state where terrorist groups are
present, while managing a complex
relationship with India.
• Two years into his tenure as the head of the
world's sixth largest Army, Bajwa has

Mike Pence
President, Indonesia

Mike Pence
Vice President, United States Age: 58
• The former Indiana governor, and a darling of
conservative evangelicals, has kept a relatively
low profile as a vice president of the United
States.
• A U.S. president is not allowed to fire his Vice
President, which gives Pence a degree of
autonomy.
• In a currently often divided Congress he is
called to break ties much more often than any
Vice President in recent history.
• Among the more notable votes were approving
Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary and the
plan to allow states to block funding for
Planned Parenthood.
• Pence is known for his conservative stance on

Aliko Dangote
NIGERIA CEO, Dangote Group
$13 B

Aliko Dangote Johnson
CEO, Dangote Group Age: 61
• Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest man,
founded and chairs Dangote Cement, the
continent's largest cement producer.
• He owns nearly 88% of publicly-traded
Dangote Cement through a holding
company.
• Dangote Cement produces 44 million metric
tons annually and plans to increase its
output 33% by 2020.
• Dangote also owns stakes in publicly-
traded salt, sugar and flour manufacturing
companies.

Ken Griffin
Founder & CEO, Citadel LLC
$9.1 B

Ken Griffin
Founder & CEO, Citadel LLC Age: 61
• Ken Griffin founded and runs Citadel, a
Chicago-based hedge fund that manages
more than $28 billion in assets.
• He founded Citadel in 1990 but first began
trading from his Harvard dorm in 1987. He
put a satellite dish on the roof to get real-
time stock quotes.
• Citadel's main hedge fund returned 13.1%
net of fees in 2017. Other key funds, like
Tactical Trading and Fixed Income, returned
between 12% to 13%.
• Griffin also owns Citadel Securities, one of
Wall Street's biggest market makers.

Enrique Pena Nieto
President, Mexico

Enrique Pena Nieto
President, Mexico Age: 56
• The Mexican president is deeply unpopular in
his country of 120 million people slated to have
an election in July 2018.
• The Mexican constitution allows for a citizen to
hold the highest position only once.
• Pena Nieto won the office in 2012 on a vow to
end drug wars and revitalize the economy.
• Despite those promises, his administration
remains mired in scandals over corruption,
continued violence and weak economic growth.
• Prior to becoming President he was Governor
of the Province of Mexico. Source: www.forbes.com

John Roberts
Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court, United States

John Roberts
Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court, United States
• The Chief Justice, now in his thirteenth year on
the bench, has helmed what many consider the
most conservative SCOTUS in generations.
• The conservative wing on the Supreme Court
was reinforced by President Trump's decision
to nominate Neil Gorsuch who was confirmed
in April 2017.
• Under Roberts' watch, the justices invalidated
key portions of the Voting Rights Act and lifted
cap on corporate spending in the Citizens
United case.
• Having earned both his undergraduate and law
degree from Harvard, Roberts was nominated
to the Supreme Court by George W. Bush.

Bashar al-Assad
President, Syria

Bashar al-Assad
President, Syria Age: 56
• Since 2011 Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has
been fighting a vicious campaign against rebel
factions within his country.
• The civil war, which began with peaceful protests
inspired by the Arab Spring, has since turned
into one of the planet's bloodiest conflicts.
• As a result, millions of Syrian refugees have fled
to neighboring states, refugee camps and distant
European shores, fueling anti-immigrant
sentiment.
• With military support from Russia and Iran,
Assad has all but regained control over country
where ISIS has also been active.
• A former practicing doctor, Assad assumed the
presidency in 2000. His father, Hafez al-Assad,

Lee Hsien Loong
Prime Minister, Singapore

Lee Hsien Loong
Prime Minister, Singapore Age: 56
• Lee Hsien Loong has served as Prime Minister
of Singapore since 2004, and helped develop
the country's outsized financial presence on the
world stage.
• Lee is also chair of GIC Private Limited, one of
the world's largest sovereign wealth funds,
with estimated assets under management of
$359 billion.
• Singapore's economy grew at a better-than-
expected 3.6 percent in 2017

Hui Ka Yan
Chairman, Evergrande Real Estate Group
$35.1 B

Hui Ka Yan
Chairman, Evergrande Real Estate Group
• Hui Ka Yan chairs Hong Kong-listed real estate
developer China Evergrande Group of
Shenzhen, active in residential and commercial
property.
• Hui graduated from a college specialized in
steel; he worked as a technician in a steel
factory for 10 years after graduating in 1982.
• Hui Ka Yan took Evergrande public in 2009.
The company has real estate projects in more
than 200 cities across China.
• Eyeing growth in China's healthcare spending,
Hui created publicly-listed Evergrande Health
and partnered with Harvard-affiliated Brigham
Hospital.
• Evergrande owns the majority of one of China's

Michael Dell
Chairman and CEO, Dell
$23.9 B

Michael Dell
Chairman and CEO, Dell Age: 61
• Michael Dell is the chairman and CEO of
Dell Technologies, which was formed in
2016 when Dell merged with computer
storage giant EMC.
• The estimated $60 billion Dell-EMC merger,
which was finalized in 2016, was the largest
technology acquisition ever.
• Most of Dell's fortune lies in his private
investment firm MSD Capital, which has
stakes in hotels and restaurants.
• Dell donated $1 billion to his foundation in
May 2017.
• He owns a 7-bedroom, 12 bath house in the
exclusive Kukio neighborhood on the Kona

Robin Li
Founder and CEO, Baidu
$15 B

Robin Li
Founder and CEO, Baidu Age: 61
• Li is CEO of Baidu, China's top search engine
and one of the world's most popular websites.
• Baidu is known in China as part of BAT --
Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent -- the trio of
companies that rank as the country's three
largest.
• Li in 2016 was criticized for trying to buy
Baidu's iQiyi video channel at a bargain price
from the publicly-traded company (the plan
was dropped).

Justin Trudeau
Prime Minister, Canada

Justin Trudeau
Prime Minister, Canada
• Justin Trudeau has been prime minister of
Canada since November 2015. He assumed the
role at 43, becoming the second-youngest
person to hold the job.
• The son of ex-prime minister Pierre Trudeau,
who held office from 1968 to 1984, Justin's
career began in 2008 when he was elected to the
Parliament.
• Trudeau favors tax cuts for the middle class--
saying he would be open to deficit spending to
recoup the difference--and action on climate
change.
• He also supports the decriminalization of
marijuana, which he said he has smoked as
recently as 2010, when he was a member of

Bernard Arnault & family
Chairman and CEO, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton
$84.4 B

Bernard Arnault & family
Chairman and CEO, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton
• One of the world's ultimate taste-makers,
Bernard Arnault oversees an empire of 70
brands including Louis Vuitton and
Sephora.
• Record results at LVMH and a megadeal to
buy out nearly all of Christian Dior helped
boost Arnault's fortune by $30.5 billion in
one year.
• Arts patron is the visionary behind the $135
million Frank Gehry-designed Foundation
Louis Vuitton museum in Paris' Bois de
Boulogne, opened in 2014.

Masayoshi Son
CEO, Softbank Corp.
$21.9 B

Masayoshi Son
CEO, Softbank Corp. Age: 61
• Masayoshi Son founded and runs SoftBank, a
mobile telecom and investment firm with $81
billion in 2017 revenue.
• Softbank invested $35 billion across 100 deals in
2017, including making investments in office
rental firm WeWork and ride hailing company
Uber.
• In December 2016 at Trump Tower, Son
promised that SoftBank would lead a $50
billion investment in U.S. companies and create
50,000 jobs.
• Investors in Son's Vision Fund include Apple,
chip firm Qualcomm, manufacturing firm
Foxconn, and the family office of billionaire
Larry Ellison

Moon Jae-in
President, South Korea

Moon Jae-in
President, South Korea Age: 56
• Moon Jae-in is the 12th President of South
Korea. He took office in May 2017 following the
impeachment of his predecessor, Park Geun-
hye.
• In just a year after taking office, Moon has
presided over a successful Winter Olympics in
PyeongChang and begun negotiating peace
with North Korea.
• In April 2018, Moon met his North Korean
counterpart Kim Jong-un at the country's
shared border.
• Moon will be a hugely important figure in
North Korea's upcoming talks with the U.S. and
maybe, eventual reunification of the Korean
peninsula.

Mary Barra
CEO, General Motors

Mary Barra
CEO, General Motors Age: 56
• Barra is focused on improving GM's
profitability while positioning the automaker
for the future.
• In October 2017 the company announced it
believes in an all-electric future with GM set to
release to electric models in 2018 and 18 by
2023.
• The leader among countries where GM sold
most vehicles in 2017 was China where the
company sold 4 million vehicles (14% of the
whole market).
• Having earned $22 million in 2017 Barra has the
highest compensation of any leader of a Detroit
Big Three automakers.

Wang Jianlin
Chairman, Dalian Wanda Group
$30.1 B

Wang Jianlin
Chairman, Dalian Wanda Group Age: 61
• Wang Jianlin chairs Dalian Wanda Group, one
of the world's biggest commercial real estate
developers with more than 200 plazas in China.
• His group also owns U.S. movie theater chain
AMC and film studio Legendary Entertainment.
• Wang retreated in 2017, selling his Chinese hotel
and tourism portfolio -- including theme parks
and a movie studio complex -- for over $9
billion.
• By early 2018, Wanda was also selling its real
estate assets in London and Australia, and a
stake in Spanish soccer club Atletico de Madrid.

Michael Bloomberg
CEO, Bloomberg
$53.3 B

Michael Bloomberg
CEO, Bloomberg Age: 61
• Michael Bloomberg cofounded financial
information and media company Bloomberg LP
in 1981.
• After putting down the company's seed
funding, he has retained an 88% stake in the
business, which has revenue north of $9 billion.
• A major philanthropist, he has donated more
than $5 billion to gun control, climate change
and other causes.
• He got his start on Wall Street in 1966 with an
entry level job at investment bank Salomon
Brothers. He was fired 15 years later.
• He owns at least six homes, including ones in
Bermuda and London.

Michel Temer
President, Brazil

Michel Temer
President, Brazil
• Formerly Brazil's Vice-President, Temer rose
to the top position in 2016 after President
Dilma Rousseff was impeached and removed.
• As head of the largest country in Latin
America, his main goal is to bolster the
economy, which rose last year (by 1%) for the
first time since 2014.
• Roussef's predecessor Luiz Inácio Lula da
Silva also faced scandal, and was sentenced to
10 years in prison for corruption. Source: www.forbes.com

Bob Iger
CEO, Walt Disney

Bob Iger
CEO, Walt Disney Age: 56
• Now in his 13th year as CEO of Disney, Bob
Iger leads the largest media conglomerate in the
world.
• The company's movie studio, theme parks and
TV stations drove revenue in 2017 to $55 billion
and net profit to $9.4 billion.
• Under Iger Disney has swallowed Pixar,
Marvel, Lucasfilm and most recently 21st
Century Fox in a $52 billion deal.
• Iger's contract expires in July 2019, but he could
stay longer than expected.
• In addition, his name has also been thrown
around as a potential contender in the
presidential elections in 2020.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan
President, Turkey

Recep Tayyip Erdogan
President, Turkey Age: 56
• As president of Turkey since 2014, Recep Erdogan
has gradually bent the country's democratic system
towards autocracy.
• Erdogan has steadily solidified power since
stamping out democratic protests over jailing of
journalists, political opponents and academics.
• In April 2018 he announced early parliamentary
and presidential elections, which he and his Justice
and Development Party are expected to win.
• Still serving as prime minister, Erdogan is an
unique position of power given his country's
geographic location and military power.
• In July 2016, he survived an attempt to oust him,
though many have since questioned whether the

Lloyd Blankfein
CEO, Goldman Sachs Group

Lloyd Blankfein
CEO, Goldman Sachs Group Age: 56
• Goldman Sachs' CEO runs a behemoth that
boasts nearly $1.5 trillion in assets for
corporations, financial institutions, governments
and individuals.
• In early 2018 it was reported that Blankfein will
retire at the end of the year, Blankfein distanced
himself from the reports.
• He called the U.S. exiting the Paris Agreement a
"setback for the environment and for the U.S.'s
leadership position in the world."
• Blankfein has also spoken about bitcoin --
though he hasn't taken a stance, he wrote that
people were skeptical when paper money
displaced gold.

Li Ka-Shing
Chairman, CK Hutchison Holdings
$34.4 B

Li Ka-Shing
Chairman, CK Hutchison Holdings Age: 61
• Nicknamed Superman, Li Ka-Shing is revered as
one of the most influential businessmen in Asia.
• Li announced in March plans to retire as chairman
of CK Hutchison Holdings and CK Asset
Holdings in May but will remain an advisor.
• His son Victor will take over the conglomerate,
which now has 323,000 employees and operates in
more than 50 nations.
• Li started Cheung Kong plastics, named after the
Yangtze River, in 1950 at age 21 with $6,500 in
savings and loans from relatives.
• His Li Ka Shing Foundation has donated more
than $2.6 billion; over 80% has gone to Greater
China.

Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
President, Egypt

Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
President, Egypt Age: 56
• Abdel Fattah el Sisi is the incumbent president
of Egypt, the most populous state in the Arab
world and Africa's second largest economy.
• In April 2018, he secured a second term in office
after winning 97% of the vote in the
presidential election.
• A former Egyptian defense minister and
commander in chief of the armed forces, he
assumed power in 2014.
• Previously, in 2013, the Egyptian military
ousted President Mohamed Morsi, with el-Sisi
saying Morsi "did not achieve the goals of the
people."
• Friend of economic reform and foe to many
civil liberties and "extremist thought," el-Sisi

Haruhiko Kuroda
Governor, Bank of Japan, Japan

Haruhiko Kuroda
Governor, Bank of Japan, Japan Age: 56
• Now in his fifth year as head of Japan's central
bank, Kuroda directs the monetary policy of a
nearly $5 trillion economy, third largest in the
world.
• In February 2018, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
reappointed Kuroda for another term as the
head of Bank of Japan (BOJ).
• A month earlier, BOJ said it intends to keep the
short-term policy rate at negative 0.1%, while it
expects to reach 2% inflation by fiscal 2019.
• Prior to holding his current position, Kuroda
was a President of the Asian Development
Bank and Special Adviser to the Prime Minister
Koizumi.

Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan
President, United Arab Emirates

Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan
President, United Arab Emirates Age: 56
• As hereditary ruler of Abu Dhabi, the richest
emirate in the U.A.E., Al-Nahyan is among the
world's wealthiest monarchs.
• In addition to controlling 97.8 billion barrels of
reserves; he runs one of the largest sovereign
wealth funds, with reported assets of $830
billion.
• The U.A.E. has gone to the mat in the war
against Islamist extremists, particularly ISIS,
which has resulted in unexpectedly high
military casualties.
• In September 2015, 45 Emirati soldiers were
killed by rebels in one day in Yemen, marking
the largest single-day death toll for the nation's
army.

Stephen Schwarzman
Chairman and CEO, Blackstone Group
$12.3 B

Stephen Schwarzman
Chairman and CEO, Blackstone Group Age: 61
• The son of a dry goods store owner, Stephen
Schwarzman founded private equity firm
Blackstone with fellow billionaire Peter
Peterson in 1985.
• Initially a boutique merger-and-acquisition
advisory business, Blackstone grew into the
world's largest buyout firm, with over $450
billion in assets.
• While Peter Peterson retired shortly after
Blackstone's 2007 IPO, Schwarzman still
presides over the business as chairman and
CEO.
• Schwarzman was chair of Trump's strategic and
policy forum.

Jim Yong Kim
President, World Bank

Jim Yong Kim
President, World Bank Age: 56
• In September 2016 Kim was re-elected as the
World Bank president for a five-year term.
• Kim outlined two key objectives: reduce extreme
poverty levels to below 3% of global people, and
grow the incomes of the bottom 40% of each
country.
• To that end, his organization lends out cash
(nearly $59 billion a year) and development
advice through its network of 189 member states.
• A medical doctor and anthropologist, Kim has
steered huge sums towards clean energy projects
in Southeast Asia and the fight against Ebola in
Africa.

Satya Nadella
CEO, Microsoft

Satya Nadella
CEO, Microsoft Age: 56
• Satya Nadella replaced billionaire Steve
Ballmer as Microsoft CEO in 2014. Prior to
that, Nadella was Microsoft EVP of the
cloud and enterprise group.
• He has steered the company away from a
failing mobile strategy and focused on
other segments, including cloud
computing and augmented reality.
• In 2016 he oversaw the purchase of the
professional network LinkedIn for $26.2
billion.
• Since taking over as a CEO, Microsoft's
stock has increased by more than 150%.

Rupert Murdoch & family
Chairman and CEO, News Corp
$15.7 B

Rupert Murdoch & family
Chairman and CEO, News Corp Age: 61
• Rupert Murdoch controls a media empire that
includes cable channel Fox News, The Times of
London and The Wall Street Journal.
• Murdoch, a native of Australia, inherited a
newspaper at age 22 after his father, a former war
correspondent, passed away.
• His sons James and Lachlan help oversee two
publicly-traded firms: broadcaster 21st Century
Fox and publisher News Corp.
• Murdoch returned to Fox News as chairman after
the ouster of Roger Ailes in 2016.
• He agreed to divest much of Fox's entertainment
assets, including film studios and regional sports
networks, to Disney for $52.4 billion in late 2017.

Shinzo Abe
Prime Minister, Japan

Shinzo Abe
Prime Minister, Japan Age: 56
• Shinzo Abe won the October 2017 parliamentary
election and his fourth 4-year term as Japan's highest
elected official.
• In early 2018 a series of scandals broke out, alleging
that Abe has used his position of power to grant
favors, which resulted in big protests.
• Since becoming prime minister in 2012 he has
employed economic policies dubbed "Abenomics,"
pumping billions of dollars into Japan's economic
growth.
• Under constant threat of North Korean missiles, Abe
has broken away from Japan's famous military
neutrality and said "all options are on the table."
• Hailing from a political family (his grandfather and

Charles Koch
CEO, Koch Industries
$60.8 B

Charles Koch
CEO, Koch Industries Age: 61
• Charles Koch has been chairman and CEO of Koch
Industries, America's second largest private
company, since 1967.
• The conglomerate has $100 billion in revenues
from businesses including pipelines, chemicals,
Dixie cups, Brawny paper towels and Stainmaster
carpets.
• His father, Fred Koch, started the business in 1940
and improved a method of refining heavy oil into
gasoline.
• The Kansas native owns a 42% stake in the firm, as
does his brother, David; they bought their two
other brothers' shares in 1983.
• Koch has funded a number of think tanks,
including the libertarian Cato Institute, the

Kim Jong-un
Supreme Leader, North Korea

Kim Jong-un
Supreme Leader, North Korea Age: 56
• On paper, North Korea's enigmatic "Supreme
Leader" has absolute control over the lives of the 25
million people living in his state.
• In April 2018, he crossed the southern border where
and shook hands with the Prime Minister of South
Korea, Moon Jae-in, signaling a softening stance.
• Earlier, in September 2017, U.S. President Trump
threatened to destroy North Korea, and Kim called
Trump a "dotard" and later sentenced him to death.
• Kim's half-brother was poisoned with a VX nerve
agent at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. It is
speculated that it was ordered by NK government.
• In practice, it's unclear how much power he shares
with military leaders. What's clear is he's fond of

Sergey Brin
President, Alphabet
$45.7 B

Sergey Brin
President, Alphabet Age: 61
• Sergey Brin works as president of tech giant
Alphabet, the parent firm of Google.
• He previously ran the secretive Google X
division, which made the ill-fated Google
glasses.
• Brin cofounded search engine firm Google
with Larry Page in 1998.
• Brin and Page met at Stanford University
while studying for advanced degrees in
computer science.
• Google went public in 2004 and changed its
name to Alphabet in 2015.

Darren Woods
CEO, ExxonMobil

Darren Woods
CEO, ExxonMobil Age: 56
• Darren Woods was elected Chairman and CEO
of the world's largest publicly traded
international oil and gas company in January
2017.
• Exxon has struggled to increase output and
profits in recent years, but revenues are ticking
up in 2018 along with the price of crude oil.
• Woods joined Exxon in 1992 as a planning
analyst and was appointed a vice president of
Exxon Mobil Corporation in 2012 Source: www.forbes.com

Jean-Claude Juncker
President, European Commission, European Union

Jean-Claude Juncker
President, European Commission, European Union
• The ex-Prime Minister of Luxembourg has held
the highest position in the executive branch of
the European Union since 2014.
• Juncker has an onerous task of restoring faith
in the union in the face of Brexit and a growing
anti-EU sentiment in countries across the
continent.
• While he considers Brexit to be a catastrophe,
Juncker has expressed open doors for the
United Kingdom if it ever wants to join again.
• His most important job as President of the
Commission is to determine the policy agenda
and to represent the Commission in G7 and
G20 meetings.

Mukesh Ambani
Founder and Chairman, Reliance Industries Ltd.
$41.9 B

Mukesh Ambani
Founder and Chairman, Reliance Industries Ltd.
• Mukesh Ambani chairs and runs $51 billion
(revenues) oil and gas giant Reliance Industries,
among India's most valuable companies.
• Reliance was founded by his late father
Dhirubhai Ambani, a yarn trader, in 1966 as a
small textile manufacturer.
• After his father's death in 2002, Ambani and his
younger sibling Anil divvied up the family
empire.
• In 2016, Reliance sparked a price war in India's
hyper-competitive telecom market with the
launch of 4G phone service Jio.
• Jio has signed on 160 million customers by
offering free domestic voice calls, dirt-cheap

Antonio Guterres
Secretary-General, United Nations

Antonio Guterres
Secretary-General, United Nations
• Guterres began his five year term as the Secretary-
General of the United Nations in January 2017.
• As a former prime minister of Portugal, Guterres
was a member of the team that negotiated the
country's 1986 entrance into the European Union.
• He was also UN High Commissioner for
Refugees--all experience he'll need to draw on in
order to help defuse Europe's ongoing migrant
crisis.
• As head of the 193 member United Nations, the
Secretary-General helps promote peace, fight
hunger and protect millions of refugees
worldwide.
• Guterres will be the ninth occupant of the post,

John L. Flannery
CEO, General Electric

John L. Flannery
CEO, General Electric
• John L. Flannery became CEO and chairman of
industrial giant GE in August 2017, following
the retirement of longtime chief Jeffrey Immelt.
• GE posted an operating loss of $8.54 billion in
2017, on sales of $122.1 billion.
• Flannery joined GE in 1987, and built his career
as an executive at GE Capital and GE India.
• He is a graduate of Fairfield University and
holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the
University of Pennsylvania.

Akio Toyoda
CEO, Toyota Motor

Akio Toyoda
CEO, Toyota Motor
• Akio Toyoda, grandson of Toyota founder
Kiichiro Toyoda, became CEO of the world's
largest automaker eight years ago.
• In its most recent fiscal year, the Japanese car
company made 10.4 million vehicles and pulled
in upward of $20 billion in net profits.
• In March 2018, Toyota said it would invest
nearly $3 billion to build software for
autonomous cars, entering the competitive self-
driving car field.

Larry Fink
Cofounder, CEO, BlackRock

Larry Fink
Cofounder, CEO, BlackRock
• Money Management With $5.4 trillion in assets,
BlackRock dominates ETFs and is strong in
both active and passive strategies. Fink is using
his firm's vast shareholder positions to press
boards for better behavior in areas of executive
pay, climate-risk disclosure and boardroom
diversity. "A long-term approach should not be
confused with an infinitely patient one," says
Fink.

Ma Huateng
Chairman and CEO, Tencent Holdings
$45.3 B

Ma Huateng
Chairman and CEO, Tencent Holdings
• Ma Huateng (also known as Pony Ma)
chairs Chinese Internet giant Tencent
Holdings, which ranks among the nation's
largest businesses by market cap.
• Tencent's popular social messaging app
WeChat has nearly one billion users.
• In contrast to his outgoing rival at Alibaba,
Ma has a low-profile style that befits his
engineering background.
• Tencent acquired a 12% stake in Snapchat-
parent Snap, according to a November 2017
filing; it also made a pre-IPO investment in
Snap.

Benjamin Netanyahu
Prime Minister, Israel

Benjamin Netanyahu
Prime Minister, Israel
• Israel's four time prime minister has been in
trouble recently, under investigation for corruption
and accused of receiving benefits from
businessmen.
• In January he was questioned by the policy in a
third third case in which he is allegedly involved,
with Netanyahu continuing to deny the
accusations.
• In August it was announced that Ari Harow, his
former chief-of-staff has agreed to testify against
him in the graft probe.
• With his approval records hitting record lows,
Netanyahu is increasingly playing up to his
conservative base.
• In August 2018 he vowed that Israel will not give

Elon Musk
CEO and Chairman, Tesla
$19.6 B

Elon Musk
CEO and Chairman, Tesla
• Elon Musk is revolutionizing transportation
both on earth and in space.
• Tesla Motors, his auto manufacturer, is
bringing fully-electric vehicles to the mass
market. Its Model 3 car retails for a starting
price of $35,000.
• SpaceX, Musk's rocket company, is now valued
at more than $20 billion.
• He grew up in South Africa, then immigrated to
Canada at age 17. He landed in the US as a
transfer student at the University of
Pennsylvania.
• Musk was a cofounder of Paypal; he scored a
huge payday when the business was acquired

Tim Cook
CEO, Apple

Tim Cook
CEO, Apple Age: 56
• Tim Cook is the man behind the company with
the world's largest market capitalization -- more
than $930 billion as of May 2018.
• Cook also runs the most profitable business in
America --Apple brought in more than $48
billion in net income last year.
• The iPhone X was released in November 2017
and cost $999. Amid criticism of slow sales
Cook defended it as "the most innovative
product."
• He's a hugely influential player in technology,
design, publishing, and entertainment,
although Apple Music is still trailing behind
Spotify.

Doug McMillon
CEO, Wal-Mart Stores

Doug McMillon
CEO, Wal-Mart Stores
• Doug McMillon took the reins of the retail
colossus in 2014, after starting his career at
Walmart unloading trucks when he was a teen.
• The youngest CEO to lead the company since
founder Sam Walton helms the world's largest
private workforce, with 2.3 million employees.
• The retail giant is planning to open fewer
supercenters over the next year as it spends
more on ecommerce, customer service and in-
store technology.

Christine Lagarde
Managing director, International Monetary Fund

Christine Lagarde
Managing director, International Monetary Fund
• As head of the International Monetary Fund,
Lagarde works to bring economic discipline to
189 countries including China, Russia and the
U.K.
• Lagarde has strongly urged central bankers to
not ignore virtual currencies.
• She became Managing Director and Chairman
of the Executive Board of IMF in 2011, replacing
Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
• She was found guilty of negligence in
December 2016 regarding misuse of public
funds when she was France's finance minister,
but was not fined.

Jack Ma
Founder and Executive Chairman, Alibaba Group
$41.4 B

Jack Ma
Founder and Executive Chairman, Alibaba Group
• A former English teacher, Jack Ma cofounded
and chairs Alibaba Group, one of the world's
largest e-commerce businesses.
• The Hangzhou, China-based firm inked its first
Olympic sponsorship deal and scored a
streaming agreement with Disney in 2017.
• Alibaba's revenue in the 12 months ending in
March 2017 rose by 56% to $23 billion.
• Its 2014 IPO in New York set a record as the
world's biggest public stock offering, raising
$25 billion.
• Ma's investments beyond Alibaba include
stakes in Chinese entertainment industry firms
Huayi Brothers and Beijing Enlight Media.

Carlos Slim Helu & family
Honorary Chairman, America Movil SAB de CV (ADR)
$65.3 B

Carlos Slim Helu & family
Honorary Chairman, America Movil SAB de CV (ADR)
• Mexico's richest man, Carlos Slim Helu and
his family control America Movil, Latin
America's biggest mobile telecom firm.
• With foreign telecom partners, Slim bought
a stake in Telmex, Mexico's only phone
company, in 1990. Telmex is now part of
America Movil.
• He also owns stakes in Mexican
construction, consumer goods, mining and
real estate companies and 17% of The New
York Times.
• His son-in-law Fernando Romero designed
the Soumaya Museum in Mexico City, home
to Slim's extensive, eclectic art collection.

Jamie Dimon
CEO, JPMorgan Chase
$1.31 B

Jamie Dimon
CEO, JPMorgan Chase
• Jamie Dimon runs JPMorgan Chase, the largest
bank in the U.S. in terms of assets.
• He began his finance career at American Express
in 1982 and later helped build the modern day
Citigroup.
• The Harvard grad joined JPMorgan Chase in 2004;
he became CEO and chairman soon after.
• His move to unload $12 billion of subprime
mortgages in 2006 buffered his bank against the
2008 crash.
• Dimon was a rumored candidate for Trump's
treasury secretary pick and sat on his policy forum
until it was disbanded.

Mario Draghi
President, European Central Bank

Mario Draghi
President, European Central Bank
• As president of the European Central Bank (ECB),
Mario Draghi has presided over an era of
disintegrating faith in EU, notable in the 2016
Brexit vote.
• He has worked to promote growth in the Eurozone
through an aggressive course of quantitative
easing, and has championed negative interest
rates.
• In October 2017 ECB announced it will to cut the
bond buying program to 30 billion euros per
month from 60 billion.
• Prior to becoming President of ECB, Draghi
worked at the World Bank, followed by a stint at
Goldman Sachs and six years as Governor of Italy.
• He earned his nickname "Super Mario," for his

Ali Hoseini-Khamenei
Grand Ayatollah, Iran

Ali Hoseini-Khamenei
Grand Ayatollah, Iran
• As Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei begrudgingly approved a nuclear
agreement between his country and seven world
powers in April 2015.
• Pressured by a crippled economy caused by
coordinated international sanctions and a weak
oil market, he agreed to compromise to have
sanctions lifted.
• Since first assuming power in 1989, Khamenei
has worked to establish Iran as a nuclear power,
and has maintained fierce antipathy towards the
U.S.
• He reaffirmed that position by thanking Trump
for doing "the job we had been trying to do in the

Warren Buffett
CEO, Berkshire Hathaway
$85.3 B

Warren Buffett
CEO, Berkshire Hathaway
• Known as the "Oracle of Omaha," Warren Buffett
is one of the most successful investors of all time.
• He runs Berkshire Hathaway, which owns more
than 60 companies, including insurer Geico,
battery maker Duracell and restaurant chain Dairy
Queen.
• The son of a U.S. congressman, he first bought
stock at age 11 and first filed taxes at age 13.
• He has committed to giving more than 99% of his
fortune to charity. So far he has given nearly $32
billion.
• With friend Bill Gates he launched The Giving
Pledge in 2010, asking billionaires to donate half
their wealth to charitable causes.

Li Keqiang
Premier, China

Li Keqiang
Premier, China
• China's second-most powerful man is often
travelling or hosting leaders to secure economic
and security partnerships for his 1.4 billion
constituents.
• In November 2017 Keqiang met U.S. President
Trump at the Great Hall of the People and
expressed US-China relations have enjoyed
positive development.
• Unlike the U.S. president, Keqiang praises free
trade and climate change action, notably at a
World Economic Conference in China in June
2017.
• An ex-member of the top leadership of the
Communist Youth League, Li has been widely

Theresa May
Prime Minister, United Kingdom

Theresa May
Prime Minister, United Kingdom
• A snap election in June 2017 aimed at shoring up
her party's majority backfired, leaving May's
Conservatives with 317 Parliament seats from 330.
• She managed to broker a confidence and supply
deal with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist
Party (DUP) to support May's minority
government.
• Only by a slim majority of 3% of Britons voted to
leave the EU in a referendum vote last year that
led then-Prime Minister David Cameron to resign.
• Now May has to guide her country through this
bumpy transition government with no time to
waste: the deadline for the U.K. to separate is
April 2019.

Mark Zuckerberg
Cofounder, Chairman and CEO, Facebook
$74.2 B

Mark Zuckerberg
Cofounder, Chairman and CEO, Facebook
• Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO, has seen his
net worth soar as the social network's stock price
has skyrocketed.
• In April 2018, he testified before Congress after it
was revealed that Facebook shared users' data
with political consulting firm Cambridge
Analytica.
• Zuckerberg started Facebook at Harvard in 2004 at
the age of 19 for students to match names with
faces in class.
• He took Facebook public in May 2012 and still
owns nearly 17% of the stock.
• Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have
pledged to give away 99% of their Facebook stake

Emmanuel Macron
President, France

Emmanuel Macron
President, France
• Macron is at the helm of Europe's third largest
economy after winning a landslide victory in the
2017 election against populist Marine Le Pen.
• In an interview with Forbes in April, Macron
announced he intends to scrap the 30 percent tax on
people who try to take their money out of France.
• Prior to becoming the President, Macron worked as
an investment banker for Rothschild & Cie Banque
in Paris and was the country's economy minister.
• In September 2017 Macron signed into law several
controversial labor reforms which allow companies
more freedom when hiring and firing employees.
• Macron took a firm stance after Trump announced
U.S. will leave the Paris climate accord, noting that

Jerome H. Powell
Chair, Federal Reserve, United States

Jerome H. Powell
Chair, Federal Reserve, United States
• The ex-Carlyle Group partner became the
world's top central banker in February 2018,
after President Trump declined to extend Janet
Yellen's term.
• As Fed chief, Powell holds the keys to the
world's largest economy, and runs the printing
presses for its reserve currency.
• In 1992, Powell served as Undersecretary of the
Treasury under President George H.W. Bush.
• He earned a law degree from Georgetown
University and was editor-in-chief of the
Georgetown Law Journal. Source: www.forbes.com

Larry Page
CEO, Alphabet
$51.1 B

Larry Page
CEO, Alphabet
• Larry Page sits at the helm of Alphabet, the
parent company of Google, healthcare
division Calico, smart home appliance
division Nest and more.
• He cofounded Google in 1998 with fellow
Stanford Ph.D. student Sergey Brin.
• With Brin, Page invented Google's
PageRank algorithm, which powers the
search engine.
• Page was Google's first CEO until 2001.
After serving as president of products, he
took the CEO job again in 2011.

Narendra Modi
Prime Minister, India

Narendra Modi
Prime Minister, India
• India's populist prime minister remains hugely
popular in the second most populous country
on earth, with a population of 1.3 billion
people.
• In November 2016 he unexpectedly announced
plans to eliminate India's two largest banknotes
in a bid to reduce money laundering and
corruption.
• Modi has raised his profile as a global leader in
recent years during official visits with Donald
Trump and Xi Jinping.
• He has also emerged as a key figure in the
international effort to tackle climate change, as
warming affects millions of his country's rural
citizens.

Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud
Crown Prince, Saudi Arabia

Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud
Crown Prince, Saudi Arabia
• His father remains king of Saudi Arabia, but
the crown prince has consolidated power
beyond any doubt and taken control of the
country.
• In November 2017, Al Saud led an
'anticorruption campaign' that caused many
prominent Saudis to be arrested and forced to
turn over their fortunes.
• As a result of the campaign, ten Saudi
billionaires were dropped from Forbes' annual
list of the world's billionaires.
• The crown prince will be the fulcrum around
which the Middle Eastern geopolitics moves for
the next generation.

Bill Gates
Cofounder, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
$92.3 B

Bill Gates
Cofounder, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• With his wife Melinda, Bill Gates chairs the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest
private charitable foundation.
• The foundation works to save lives and improve
global health, and is working with Rotary
International to eliminate polio.
• Gates has sold or given away much of his stake
in Microsoft -- he owns just over 1% of shares --
and invested in a mix of stocks and other assets.
• He remains a board member of Microsoft, the
software firm he founded with Paul Allen in
1975.
• In late 2016, Gates announced the launch of a $1
billion Breakthrough Energy investment fund

Pope Francis
Bishop of Rome, Roman Catholic Church

Pope Francis
Bishop of Rome, Roman Catholic Church
• Pope Francis is the spiritual leader to more than
one-sixth of the world's population, 1.3 billion
people.
• He has made it his personal mission to
transform the longstanding conservative image
of the Catholic Church.
• In November 2016 he gave priests the power to
forgive women who undergo abortions.
• He has continued to push for climate change
reform, better treatment of refugees and greater
attention to persecution of religious minorities.
• Still, Francis has kept some traditional aspects
of the Church in place, including a ban on
female clergy members.

Jeff Bezos
CEO and Founder, Amazon.com
$132.4 B

Jeff Bezos
CEO and Founder, Amazon.com
• Amazon's chief Jeff Bezos is the first person
to top $100 billion as number one on the
Forbes list of the World's Billionaires.
• He owns 16% of e-commerce colossus
Amazon, which he founded in a garage in
Seattle in 1994.
• Bezos attended Princeton and worked at a
hedge fund before quitting to sell books
online.
• His other passion is space travel: His
aerospace company, Blue Origin, is
developing a reusable rocket that Bezos
says will carry passengers.
• Bezos purchased The Washington Post in

Angela Merkel
Chancellor, Germany

Angela Merkel
Chancellor, Germany
• The de facto leader of Europe, Merkel won a hard-
fought election that saw the far-right Alternative
for Germany (AfD) party creep into the
Bundestag.
• After struggling to form a government Merkel
finally agreed to a 'grand coalition' with her old
partners, a deal that came at a high price for her.
• She'll have to continue to hold tight to the EU
rudder as she faces oncoming storms from Brexit
and the growing anti-immigrant sentiment in
Europe.
• She's working from a position of strength as
Germany's economy continues to grow. After a
slump in 2015, GDP is on the upswing.

Donald Trump
President, United States
$3.1 B

Donald Trump
President, United States
• Donald Trump became the first billionaire
president in U.S. history in January 2017.
• The core of his fortune is tied up in a half-dozen
buildings in and around midtown Manhattan in
New York City, where luxury real estate values
have fallen recently.
• Trump also owns golf courses and a winery and
has licensed his name to companies around the
world.
• He got his start working for his father, Fred,
who developed low-cost housing in Brooklyn
and Queens.
• Trump tapped his two eldest sons, Don Jr. and
Eric, to run the family business while he is in
office.

Vladimir Putin
President, Russia

Vladimir Putin
President, Russia
• Voted the world's most powerful person four times
between 2013 and 2016, Russia's president has
exerted his country's influence around the world.
• An FBI investigation is underway to determine
whether Trump's campaign had a relationship with
high ranking Russian officials during the
elections.
• Trump and Putin have denied the allegations,
though Facebook admitted that 126 million
Americans saw political ads purchased by Russian
organizations.
• Born in 1952 in Saint Petersburg, Putin served as
Prime Minister for one year during Yeltsin's
presidency and ascended to the highest office in
2000.

Xi Jinping
General Secretary, Communist Party, China

Xi Jinping
General Secretary, Communist Party, China
• The leader of the world's most populated
country and second largest economy (GDP), Xi
Jinping holds a firm grasp on China's only
political party.
• In March, China's parliament amended its
constitution, broadening Xi's power and
scrapping term limits.
• After ascending to the presidency in 2012, Xi
was quick to see the benefits of privatization-
friendly reform.
• He is widely credited with the slogan Chinese
Dream - a set of personal and national ideals for
the advancement of Chinese society.
• He has a surprisingly assertive public profile,
even allowing the state media to publish a day-

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