The most influential people in the world according to Time.
Leaders and revolutionaries
- George Bush, U.S. President
- Hu Jintao, President of China
- Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil
- Ali Husaini Sistani, Muslim cleric, Iraq
- Toshishiko Fukui, Japanese economist
- Abu al-Zarqawi, Islamic terrorist
- Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General
- Condoleezza Rice, U.S. national security adviser
- Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish Prime Minister
- John Abizaid, U.S. army general
- Kim Jong Il, North Korean leader
- Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft
- Pope John Paul II
- Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Indian Prime Minister
- Louise Arbour, UN Commissioner
- John Kerry, U.S. presidential candidate
- Luisa Diogo, Prime Minister, Mozambique
- Vladmir Putin, Russian President
- Wu Yi, Chinese health minister
- Osama bin Laden, al-Qa’ida leader
Artists and entertainers
- Mark Burnett, television producer
- Frank Gehry, architect
- John Galliano, fashion designer
- Peter Jackson, film director
- Nicholas Hytner, stage director
- Simon Cowell, pop impresario
- Outkast, US musicians
- Norah Jones, singer
- Jerry Bruckheimer, film producer
- J.K. Rowling, author
- Ken Kutagari, Sony CEO
- Bruce Nauman, US artist
- Katie Couric, US broadcaster
- Charlie Kaufman, screen writer
- Hideo Nakata, Japanese film director
- Aishwarya Rai, Indian actress and model
- Ferran Adria, Spanish chef
- Nicole Kidman, actress
- Sean Penn, actor
- Guy Laliberte, founder of Cirque-du-Soleil
Builders and titans
- Lee Scott, Walmart CEO
- Carly Fiorina, Hewlett-Packard CEO
- Abigail Johnson, president of FMR, US mutual-fund giant
- David Neeleman, CEO of JetBlue Airways in US
- Rupert Murdoch, media tycoon
- Lindsay Owen-Jones, L’Oréal CEO
- Howard Schultz, founder of Starbucks
- Azim Premji, chairman of Indian global outsourcing company
- Warren Buffett, U.S. investor
- Michael Dell, CEO of Dell computers
- Al Jazeera, satellite TV channel, Qatar
- John Browne, CEO of BP
- Hiroshi Okuda/Fujio Cho, chairmen of Toyota
- Sergey Brin/Larry Page, Google co-founders
- Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH in France
- Sepp Blatter, President of Fifa
- Belinda Stronach, CEO of Magna, Canadian auto company
- Meg Whitman, CEO of eBay
- Daniel Vasella, CEO of Novartis, Switzerland
- Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple
Heroes and icons
- Nelson Mandela
- Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese opposition leader
- Queen Raina of Jordan
- Shirn Ebadi, Iranian human rights activist
- Bono, Irish rock star
- Bernard Kouchner, French humanitarian
- Bill Belichick, U.S. football coach
- David Beckham, footballer
- Lance Armstrong, U.S. cyclist
- Yao Ming, Chinese basketball player
- John Bogle, US economist/innovator
- Mel Gibson, actor/director
- Arthur Agatston, U.S. nutritionist
- Tenzin Gyatso, the Dalai Lama
- Tiger Woods, golfer
- Paula Radcliffe, athlete
- Oprah Winfrey, TV personality
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, actor/Governor of California
- Evan Wolfson, U.S. gay marriage campaigner
- BKS Iyengar, Indian yoga instructor
Scientists and thinkers
- Edward Witten, physicist
- Steven Pinker, experimental psychologist
- Eric Lander, geneticist
- Woo Suk Hwang/Shin Yong Moon, Korean scientists
- Paul Ridker, American cardiovascular expert
- Hernando de Soto, Peruvian economist
- Jeffrey Sachs, director of Earth Institute in U.S.
- Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux computer system
- Niall Ferguson, British historian
- Bernard Lewis, British scholar and professor emeritus at Princeton University
- Tariq Ramadan, Swiss philosopher and cleric
- Jurgen Habermas, German philosopher
- Samantha Power, American journalist, author and political commentator
- Sandra Day O’Connor, U.S. Supreme Court justice
- Jill Tarter, director of Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence
- Julie Gerberding, director of U.S. Center for Disease, Control and Prevention
- Joschka Fischer, German Foreign Minister
- Bjorn Lomborg, Danish author
- Jong Wook Lee, CEO of World Health Organisation
- The Clintons, U.S. politicians