20 most influential people in the world
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The ability to move markets or shape ideas and policies. The clout to affect the price of a security or the structure of a deal. These are the attributes that define the people who hold sway in the world of finance - those who make up Bloomberg Markets' second annual Most Influential list.
Let's take a look at the most influential people in the world.
Source: Bloomberg
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Image: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Photographs: Brendan McDermid/Reuters
20 most influential people in the world
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Warren Buffett
CEO, Berkshire Hathaway Inc
Warren Edward Buffett is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is widely considered the most successful investor of the 20th century. He is the primary shareholder, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people.
He was ranked as the world's wealthiest person in 2008 and is the third-wealthiest person in the world as of 2011. In 2012, American magazine Time named Buffett one of the most influential people in the world.
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Image: Warren Buffett and his wife Astrid Menks arrive for a State Dinner at the White House in Washington.
Photographs: Benjamin Myers/Reuters
20 most influential people in the world
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Chung Mong Koo
Chairman, Hyundai Motor Co
Chung Mong Koo is the chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, the largest carmaker in South Korea. The Hyundai Motor Group is consist of 42 subsidiaries and it is the second-largest Chaebol in South Korea.
Chung succeeded his father, Chung Ju-yung, founder of what would become the Hyundai Conglomerate (in Korean,"Chaebol") When the conglomerate split into several parts in 1999, Chung Monk Koo took over the Hyundai Motor business.
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Image: Hyundai Motor Chairman Chung in Seoul.
Photographs: Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters
20 most influential people in the world
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Tim Cook
CEO, Apple Inc
Timothy D 'Tim' Cook is the CEO of Apple. Cook joined Apple in March 1998 as SVP of Worldwide Operations and also served as EVP of Worldwide Sales and Operations and was COO until he was named the CEO of Apple on August 24, 2011, succeeding Steve Jobs.
Cook had previously served as acting CEO of Apple after Jobs began a medical leave in January 2011.
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Image: Apple CEO Tim Cook in San Francisco.
Photographs: Stephen Lam/Reuters
20 most influential people in the world
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John Fredriksen
Chairman, Seadrill Ltd
John Fredriksen is a Norwegian-born Cypriot oil tanker and shipping tycoon, owner of the world's largest oil tanker fleet, and was Norway's richest man until he chose to abandon his Norwegian citizenship and take up a Cypriot passport.
Norwegian magazine E24 listed Fredriksen in 2011 with a net worth of $10.7 billion. Through his investment companies Hemen Holdings and Meisha, Fredriksen controls the companies Frontline and Golar LNG from London.
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Image: Norwegian investor John Fredriksen in Oslo.
Photographs: Scanpix/Reuters
20 most influential people in the world
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Yuri Milner
Co-founder, Mail.ru Group Ltd
Yuri Borisovich Milner is a Russian entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He founded investment firms Digital Sky Technologies, now called Mail.ru Group and DST Global.
Through Mail.ru Group and DST Global, Milner is an investor in Facebook, Zynga, Twitter, Spotify, ZocDoc, 360Buy.com and Groupon.
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Image: Digital Sky Technologies CEO Yuri Milner in Paris.
Photographs: Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
20 most influential people in the world
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Ginni Rometty
CEO, International Business Machines Corp
Virginia Marie 'Ginni' Rometty is an American business executive; the president and CEO of IBM. She is the first woman to head IBM.
Prior to becoming president and CEO in January 2012 she held the position of Senior Vice-President and Group Executive for Sales, Marketing, and Strategy at IBM.
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Image: Sam Palmisano and Virginia M
Photographs: Handout/Reuters
20 most influential people in the world
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Carlos Slim
Chairman Emeritus, America Movil SAB
Carlos Slim Helu is a Mexican business magnate and philanthropist. He is currently ranked as the richest person in the world in 2012. Slim has been ranked the richest person in the world since 2010.
His extensive holdings in a considerable number of Mexican companies through his conglomerate, Grupo Carso, SA de CV, have amassed interests in the fields of communications, technology, retailing, and finance. Presently he is the chairman and chief executive of telecommunications companies Telmex and America Movil.
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Image: Carlos Slim Helu in Geneva.
Photographs: Valentin Flauraud/Reuters
20 most influential people in the world
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Tadashi Yanai
Founder, Fast Retailing Co
Tadashi Yanai is founder and president of Fast Retailing, of which Uniqlo is a subsidiary. He is routinely ranked as one of the richest men in Japan, and in 2009 was ranked 76th richest man in the world according to Forbes, making him the richest man in Japan with an estimated net worth of $6.0 billion.
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Image: Tadashi Yanai in Paris.
Photographs: Charles Platiau/Reuters
20 most influential people in the world
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Mark Zuckerberg
Founder, Facebook Inc
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg is an American computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur. He is best known as one of five co-founders of the social networking site Facebook. Zuckerberg is the chairman and chief executive of Facebook, Inc.
Born and raised in New York state, he took up writing software programs as a hobby in middle school, beginning with BASIC, with help from his father and a tutor. In high school, he excelled in classic literature and fencing while studying at Phillips Exeter Academy.
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Image: Mark Zuckerberg with his wife Priscilla Chan.
Photographs: Stringer/Reuters
20 most influential people in the world
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Leon Cooperman
Founder, Omega Advisors Inc
Cooperman was born April 25, 1943 to Jewish parents in the South Bronx. His father worked as a plumber. He attended Hunter College. After graduating, Cooperman became a Xerox quality control engineer in 1965. He then obtained an MBA from Columbia Business School, graduating on January 31, 1967.
The day after graduating, Cooperman joined Goldman Sachs in the company's asset management arm, conducting investment research. He worked at Goldman Sachs for 25 years, becoming a general partner and Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management. In 1991, Cooperman left the firm and founded Omega Advisors.
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Image: Leon Cooperman in New York.
Photographs: Jeff Zelevansky/Reuters
20 most influential people in the world
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Larry Fink
CEO, BlackRock Inc
Laurence D 'Larry' Fink is the chairman and chief executive officer of BlackRock, an American multinational investment management corporation. BlackRock is the largest money-management firm in the world.
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Image: Larry Fink in Washington, DC.
Photographs: Jason Reed/Reuters
20 most influential people in the world
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Bill Gross
Co-Chief Investment Officer, Pacific Investment Management Co
William Hunt 'Bill' Gross is an American financial manager and author. He co-founded Pacific Investment Management. Gross also runs Pimco'ss $252.2 billion Total Return Fund.
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Image: Bill Gross in in Pebble Beach, California.
Photographs: Robert Galbraith/Reuters
20 most influential people in the world
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Jeffrey Gundlach
Founder, DoubleLine Capital LP
Jeffrey Gundlach is the founder of Doubleline Capital, an investment firm. He was formerly the head of the $12 billion TCW Total Return Bond Fund, where he finished in the top two per cent of all funds invested in intermediate-term bonds for the 10 years that ended prior to his departure.
Barrons in a February 2011 cover story called him the 'King of Bonds'. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College.
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Image: Jeffrey Gundlach in in New York.
Photographs: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters
20 most influential people in the world
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Mamata Banerjee
Chief Minister, West Bengal
Mamata Banerjee is the 11th and current Chief Minister of West Bengal. She is the first woman to hold the office. Banerjee founded the party All India Trinamool Congress in 1997 and became its chairperson, after separating from the Indian National Congress.
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Image: Mamata Banerjee in New Delhi.
Photographs: B Mathur/Reuters
20 most influential people in the world
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Ben Bernanke
Chairman, US Federal Reserve
Ben Shalom Bernanke is an American economist and currently chairman of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States. During his tenure as chairman, Bernanke has overseen the Federal Reserve's response to the late-2000s financial crisis.
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Image: Ben Bernanke in in Atlanta, Georgia.
Photographs: Erik S Lesser/Reuters
20 most influential people in the world
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Preet Bharara
Prosecuter, US Department of Justice
Preetinder Singh 'Preet' Bharara is the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York. In 2012, Bharara was named by Time magazine as one of 'The 100 Most Influential People in the World,' and by India Abroad as its 2011 Person of the Year.
Bharara was also featured on a cover of Time Magazine entitled "This Man is Busting Wall Street" for his office's prosecutions of insider trading and other financial fraud on Wall Street.
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Image: Preet Bharara in New York.
Photographs: Lucas Jackson/Reuters
20 most influential people in the world
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Mario Draghi
President, European Central Bank
Mario Draghi is an Italian banker and economist who succeeded Jean-Claude Trichet as President of the European Central Bank on November 1, 2011. He was previously the governor of the Bank of Italy from January 2006 until October 2011.
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Image: Mario Draghi in Brussels.
Photographs: Francois Lenoir/Reuters
20 most influential people in the world
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Timothy F Geithner
Secretary, US Treasury
Timothy Franz Geithner is an American economist, central banker and civil servant. He is the 75th and current United States Secretary of the Treasury, serving under President Barack Obama. He was previously the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
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Image: Tim Geithner in Washington, DC.
Photographs: Gary Cameron/Reuters
20 most influential people in the world
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Paul Ryan
Republican Party's nominee for Vice-President
Paul Davis Ryan is the United States Representative for Wisconsin's 1st congressional district and the nominee of the Republican Party for Vice-President of the United States in the 2012 election.
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Image: Republican Vce-Presidential nominee Paul Ryan waves with his son Charlie, his daughter Liza, his wife Janna and mother Betty Douglas after accepting the nomination during the third session of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida.
Photographs: Mike Segar/Reuters
20 most influential people in the world
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Aung San Suu Kyi
Chairperson, National League for Democracy
Aung San Suu Kyi is a Burmese opposition politician and chairperson of the National League for Democracy in Burma.
Image: Aung San Suu Kyi in the Pathein township, capital of the Irrawaddy division, in Myanmar.
Photographs: Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters






















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