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The World’s Most Powerful people in 2016 according to Forbes

Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump top Forbes’ 2016 ‘World’s Most Powerful People’ list

There are nearly 7.4 billion humans on planet Earth, but these 74 men and women make the world turn. Forbes’ annual ranking of the World’s Most Powerful People identifies one person out of every 100 million whose actions mean the most.

To compile the list, we considered hundreds of candidates from various walks of life all around the globe, and measured their power along four dimensions. First, we asked whether the candidate has power over lots of people. Pope Francis, ranked #5, is the spiritual leader of more than a billion Catholics. Doug McMillon (#27), is the CEO of the world’s largest private employer, Wal-Mart Stores, with more than 2.3 million workers around the globe.

President-elect Donald Trump rocketed from No. 72 on Forbes annual list of “The World’s Most Powerful People” in 2015 to No. 2 this time around. “Donald Trump is trading in Trump Tower for the White House,” Forbes notes in a jaunty review. “The New York native will become the first billionaire president of the United States, after upsetting Hillary Clinton in a surprising election victory.” Mrs. Clinton does not appear on the list at all. President Obama is ranked No. 48. Last year, he was No. 2.

“Any ranking of the world’s most powerful people is going to be subjective, so we don’t pretend ours is definitive. It’s meant to be the beginning of a conversation, not the final word,” notes Forbes contributing editor David Ewalt.

And who is the tip top of the list? That would be Russia President Vladimir Putin, who’s been there for a while.

 “The world’s most powerful person for four years running, Russia’s president has exerted his country’s influence in nearly every corner of the globe; from the motherland to Syria to the U.S. presidential elections, Putin continues to get what he wants,” Forbes says. “Unconstrained by conventional global norms, his reach has magnified in recent years. In 2016 Russian hackers were accused of tapping into email accounts owned by members of the U.S. Democratic Party in a bid to aid the campaign of Donald Trump, who has regularly praised Putin’s leadership style. The Kremlin denies the charges, and President-elect Trump has also dismissed the possibility of outsiders tampering in the election, despite a reported CIA memo suggesting otherwise. Either way, with a likely ally entering the White House, Putin’s power may go largely unchecked for years to come.”

The lengthy power list includes 74 assorted elected officials, politicians, rulers, entrepreneurs, economic wizards, billionaires, CEOs and clergy. After Mssrs. Putin and Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is in third place, followed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, Pope Francis, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Google CEO Larry Page, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

The List

Rank Name Organization Age
#1 Vladimir Putin Russia 64
#2 Donald Trump United States 70
#3 Angela Merkel Germany 62
#4 Xi Jinping China 63
#5 Pope Francis Roman Catholic Church 80
#6 Janet Yellen United States 70
#7 Bill Gates Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation 61
#8 Larry Page Alphabet 43
#9 Narendra Modi India 66
#10 Mark Zuckerberg Facebook 32
#11 Mario Draghi European Central Bank 69
#12 Li Keqiang China 61
#13 Theresa May United Kingdom 51
#14 Jeff Bezos Amazon.com 52
#15 Warren Buffett Berkshire Hathaway 86
#16 Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud Saudi Arabia 80
#17 Carlos Slim Helu América Móvil 76
#18 Ali Hoseini-Khamenei Iran 77
#19 Jamie Dimon JPMorgan Chase 60
#20 Benjamin Netanyahu Israel 67
#21 Elon Musk Space Exploration Technologies Corp. 45
#22 Jeffrey Immelt General Electric 60
#23 Francois Hollande France 62
#24 Rex Tillerson ExxonMobil 64
#25 Christine Lagarde International Monetary Fund 60
#26 Lloyd Blankfein Goldman Sachs Group 62
#27 Doug McMillon Wal-Mart Stores 50
#28 Jack Ma Alibaba Group 52
#29 Akio Toyoda Toyota Motor 60
#30 Sergey Brin Alphabet 43
#31 Charles Koch Koch Industries 81
#32 Tim Cook Apple 56
#33 Li Ka-shing CK Hutchison Holdings 88
#34 Larry Fink BlackRock 64
#35 Rupert Murdoch News Corp 85
#36 Antonio Guterres United Nations 67
#37 Shinzo Abe Japan 62
#38 Mukesh Ambani Reliance Industries 59
#39 Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan United Arab Emirates 68
#40 Jay Y. Lee Samsung Electronics 48
#41 Ding Xuedong China 56
#42 Jim Yong Kim World Bank 57
#43 Kim Jong-un North Korea 33
#44 Abdel el-Sisi Egypt 62
#45 Ma Huateng Tencent Holdings 45
#46 Michael Dell Dell 51
#47 Haruhiko Kuroda Japan 72
#48 Barack Obama United States 55
#49 Khalid Al-Falih Saudi Arabia 56
#50 John Roberts United States 61
#51 Satya Nadella Microsoft 49
#52 Stephen Schwarzman Blackstone Group 69
#53 Masayoshi Son Softbank 59
#54 Enrique Pena Nieto Mexico 50
#55 Michael Bloomberg Bloomberg 74
#56 Recep Erdogan Turkey 62
#57 Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Islamic State 45
#58 Alisher Usmanov Metalloinvest 63
#59 Wang Jianlin Dalian Wanda Group 62
#60 Robin Li Baidu 48
#61 Ginni Rometty IBM 59
#62 Mary Barra General Motors 55
#63 Bashar al-Assad Syria 51
#64 Travis Kalanick Uber Technologies Inc. 40
#65 Carl Icahn Icahn Capital Management 80
#66 Justin Trudeau Canada 45
#67 Bob Iger Walt Disney 65
#68 Aliko Dangote Dangote Group 59
#69 Mike Pence United States 57
#70 Rodrigo Duterte Philippines 71
#71 Ayman al-Zawahiri Al-Qaeda 65
#72 Sheldon Adelson Las Vegas Sands 83
#73 Peter Thiel Founders Fund 49
#74 Chuck Schumer United States 66

 

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