Dangote makes world’s most powerful list

Who’s more powerful: the autocratic leader of a
former superpower, or the handcuffed
Commander-in-Chief of the most dominant
country in the world? 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,
financiers, philanthropists 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 full
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.