This year the votes for the World’s Most Powerful went to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He climbs one spot ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama, who held the title in 2012.
Putin has solidified his control over Russia while Obama’s lame duck period has seemingly set in earlier than usual for a two-term president — latest example: the government shutdown mess. Anyone watching this year’s chess match over Syria and NSA leaks has a clear idea of the shifting individual power dynamics.
The Most Powerful People in the World list is an annual snapshot of the heads of state, CEOs and financiers, philanthropists and NGO chiefs, billionaires, and entrepreneurs who truly rule the world. It represents the collective wisdom of top FORBES editors, who consider hundreds of nominees before ranking the planet’s top 72 power-brokers – one for every 100 million people on Earth — based on their scope of influence and their financial resources relative to their peers. (see methodology here)
This year’s list features 17 heads of state who run nations with a combined GDP of some $48 trillion — including the three most powerful people, Putin, Obama and Xi Jinping, the general secretary of the Communist Party of China. The 27 CEOs and chairs control over $3 trillion in annual revenues, and 12 are entrepreneurs, including new billionaires on the list, Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote (No. 64), founder of Dangote Group, and Oracle’s Larry Ellison (No. 58). Speaking of, this year’s class has 28 billionaires valued in excess of $564 billion.
Here, a quick peek at the Most Powerful People in the World 2013:
Newcomers: Among the 13 newcomers are Pope Francis (No. 4), Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-Hee (No. 41), Volkswagen’s Martin Winterkorn (No. 49), South Korean President Park Geun-hye (No. 52), IBM CEO Virginia Rometty (No. 56), and Janet Yellen (No. 72), nominated by President Obama as the next leader of the U.S. Federal Reserve. Rosneft CEO and Putin confidant Igor Sechin (No. 60) and Jill Abramson (No. 68), the executive editor of the New York Times, make a return appearance after dropping of the list in years past.
He’s Not No. 1: This is the first year that Putin carries the crown. Obama has been on the top of the list for every year with the exception of 2010, when Hu Jintao, the former political and military leader of China, was No. 1.
Women Moving Up In Numbers: This year there are nine women on the list, representing 12% of the world’s most powerful — in stark contrast to being 50% of the world’s population. Both 2011 and 2012 featured six women leaders, and the inaugural list from 2009 included only 3 — or just 4.4%. Recently elected Park of South Korea joins the other female heads of state German Chancellor Angela Merkel No.5), Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff (No. 20)and de facto head of India Sonia Gandhi (No. 21). Two of the world’s most important NGO’s are run by women: Christine Lagarde (No. 35) leads the IMF and Margaret Chan (No. 59) steers the World Health Organization.
Billionaires: Worth a cumulative $564 billion. Sure they’re rich but many of these billionaires deserve special attention for their philanthropic work, including Warren Buffett (No. 13), Michael Bloomberg (No. 29), Li Ka-shing (No. 30), Charles and David Koch (No. 31), and Mohammed Ibrahim (No. 71).
Entrepreneurs Represent: There are 12 in total. As expected, many are headquartered on the West Coast: Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin (No. 17), Mark Zuckerberg (No. 24), Elon Musk (No. 47), Ellison and Reid Hoffman (No. 65). Global entrepreneurial spirit spans from Japan’s Masayoshi Son (No. 45) and China’s Robin Li (No. 61) to Africa’s Dangote and Ibrahim.
Year-over-year growth: The FORBES Most Powerful started in 2009, seeking to answer a straight yet complex question: What is the true nature of power and can we really compare and rank heads of state with religious figures and drug traffickers? The premise has always been to select one person for every 100 million on the planet. The first list had 67 slots. This year we are up to 72. At this fifth edition, it’s notable that most of the leaders who made the top 10 on the inaugural list are still on today: Obama, Putin, Bill Gates (No. 6), U.S. Fed Chair Ben Bernanke (No. 7), the King of Saudi Arabia (No. 8), Wal-Mart CEO Michael Duke (No. 10), billionaire Carlos Slim Helu (No. 12), Page and Brin, and Rupert Murdoch (No. 33).
BROWSE THE LIST
Rank | Name/Title | Organization | Age |
1 | Vladimir Putin President | Russia | 61 |
2 | Barack Obama President | United States | 52 |
3 | Xi Jinping General Secretary, Communist Party | China | 60 |
4 | Pope Francis Pope | Roman Catholic Church | 76 |
5 | Angela Merkel Chancellor | Germany | 59 |
6 | Bill Gates Co-Chair | Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation | 58 |
7 | Ben Bernanke Chairman, Federal Reserve | United States | 59 |
8 | Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud King | Saudi Arabia | 89 |
9 | Mario Draghi President | European Central Bank | 66 |
10 | Michael Duke CEO | Wal-Mart Stores | 63 |
11 | David Cameron Prime Minister | United Kingdom | 47 |
12 | Carlos Slim Helu & family Honorary Chairman | América Móvil | 73 |
13 | Warren Buffett CEO | Berkshire Hathaway | 83 |
14 | Li Keqiang Premier | China | 58 |
15 | Jeff Bezos CEO | Amazon.com | 49 |
16 | Rex Tillerson CEO | Exxon Mobil | 61 |
17 | Sergey Brin Cofounder, Director Of Special Projects | 40 | |
17 | Larry Page CEO | 40 | |
18 | Francois Hollande President | France | 59 |
19 | Timothy Cook CEO | Apple | 52 |
20 | Dilma Rousseff President | Brazil | 65 |
21 | Sonia Gandhi President, Indian National Congress | India | 66 |
22 | Jamie Dimon CEO | JPMorgan Chase | 57 |
23 | Ali Hoseini-Khamenei Grand Ayatollah | Iran | 74 |
24 | Mark Zuckerberg Cofounder, Chairman and CEO | 29 | |
25 | Jeffrey Immelt CEO | General Electric | 57 |
26 | Benjamin Netanyahu Prime Minister | Israel | 64 |
27 | Lloyd Blankfein CEO | Goldman Sachs Group | 59 |
28 | Manmohan Singh Prime Minister | India | 81 |
29 | Michael Bloomberg Mayor, New York City | United States | 71 |
30 | Li Ka-shing Chairman | Hutchison Whampoa | 85 |
31 | Charles Koch CEO | Koch Industries | 77 |
31 | David Koch Executive Vice President | Koch Industries | 73 |
32 | Ban Ki-moon Secretary-General | United Nations | 69 |
33 | Rupert Murdoch & family Chairman and CEO | News Corp | 82 |
34 | Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan President | United Arab Emirates | 65 |
35 | Christine Lagarde Managing Director | International Monetary Fund | 57 |
36 | Xuedong Ding Chairman, China Investment Corp | China | 53 |
37 | Enrique Pena Nieto President | Mexico | 47 |
38 | Mukesh Ambani Chairman | Reliance Industries | 56 |
39 | Haruhiko Kuroda Governor, Bank of Japan | Japan | 69 |
40 | Ali Al-Naimi Oil Minister | Saudi Arabia | 78 |
41 | Lee Kun-Hee Chairman | Samsung Group | 71 |
42 | Larry Fink Cofounder, CEO | BlackRock | 60 |
43 | Bill Clinton Chairman | Clinton Global Initiative | 67 |
44 | Akio Toyoda CEO | Toyota Motor | 57 |
45 | Masayoshi Son CEO | Softbank | 56 |
46 | Kim Jong-un Supreme Leader | North Korea | 30 |
47 | Elon Musk Founder, CEO | Space Exploration Technologies Corp. | 42 |
48 | Terry Gou CEO | Hon Hai Precision | 63 |
49 | Martin Winterkorn Chairman | Volkswagen Group | 66 |
50 | Jim Yong Kim President | World Bank | 53 |
51 | Lakshmi Mittal Chairman and CEO | ArcelorMittal | 63 |
52 | Geun-hye Park President | South Korea | 61 |
53 | Dmitry Medvedev Prime Minister | Russia | 48 |
54 | Bernard Arnault & family Chairman and CEO | LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton | 64 |
55 | Bill Gross Cofounder and Co-Chief Investment Officer | Pacific Investment Management Company LLC | 69 |
56 | Virginia Rometty CEO | IBM | 55 |
57 | Shinzo Abe Prime Minister | Japan | 59 |
58 | Larry Ellison CEO | Oracle | 69 |
59 | Margaret Chan Director-General | World Health Organization | 66 |
60 | Igor Sechin Chairman | Rosneft | 53 |
61 | Robin Li Founder and CEO | Baidu | 44 |
62 | John Roberts Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court | United States | 58 |
63 | Alisher Usmanov Founder | Metalloinvest | 60 |
64 | Aliko Dangote CEO | Dangote Group | 56 |
65 | Reid Hoffman Partner | Greylock Partners | 46 |
66 | John Boehner Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives | United States | 63 |
67 | Joaquin Guzman Loera Drug Trafficker | Sinaloa Cartel | 56 |
68 | Jill Abramson Executive Editor | New York Times Co. | 59 |