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PHOTOS: World's most influential businesspeople

Last updated on: April 20, 2012 09:54 IST
Nobel laureate in Economic Sciences Professor Elinor Ostrom speaks at Forest Day 3 in the Falconer Convention Center in Copenhagen.

Time magazine lists 100 'people who inspire us, entertain us, challenge us and change our world'. Meet 13 businesspeople who make it to the top 100 list.

Elinor Ostrom

Elinor Ostrom is an American political economist. She was awarded the 2009 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, which she shared with Oliver E Williamson, for her analysis of economic governance.

She was the first and the only woman to win the prize in this category. Her work is associated with the new institutional economics and the resurgence of political economy.

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World's most influential businesspeople

Last updated on: April 20, 2012 09:54 IST
Marc Andreessen.

Marc Andreessen

Marc Andreessen is an American entrepreneur, investor, software engineer, and multi-millionaire. He is known as the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely-used web browser, and co-founder of Netscape Communications Corporation.

He founded and later sold the software company Opsware to Hewlett-Packard. He is also a co-founder of Ning, a company which provides a platform for social-networking websites. He is one of the directors of Facebook, eBay, and HP.

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World's most influential businesspeople

Last updated on: April 20, 2012 09:54 IST
Andrew Lo.

Andrew Lo

Andrew Lo is a Professor of Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management. A leading authority on hedge funds and financial engineering, he proposed the Adaptive market hypothesis.

He is the author of several academic articles in Finance and Financial economics. He is the director of MIT's Laboratory for Financial Engineering, a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, a member of the NASD's Economic Advisory Board, and founder and chief scientific officer of AlphaSimplex Group, LLC.

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World's most influential businesspeople

Last updated on: April 20, 2012 09:54 IST
Ray Dalio.

Ray Dalio

Ray Dalio is an American businessman and founder of Bridgewater Associates.

The son of a jazz musician, Dalio began investing at age 12 when he bought shares of Northeast Airlines for $300 and tripled his investment after the airline merged with another company.

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World's most influential businesspeople

Last updated on: April 20, 2012 09:54 IST
Warren Buffett.

Warren Buffett

Warren Edward Buffett is an American business tycoon, investor, and philanthropist. One of the world's most successful investors, he is the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is the world's third richest person in the world as of 2011.

Buffett is also a notable philanthropist, having pledged to give away 99 per cent of his fortune to philanthropic causes.

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World's most influential businesspeople

Last updated on: April 20, 2012 09:54 IST
Alice Walton.

Alice Walton

Daughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton and Helen Walton, Alice Walton is an American heiress to the Wal-Mart fortune.

In September 2011, her estimated net worth was $20.9 billion, making her the tenth richest American.

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World's most influential businesspeople

Last updated on: April 20, 2012 09:54 IST
Facebook's Chief Operating Officer (COO) Sheryl Sandberg attends a session at the World Economic Forum.

Sheryl Sandberg

Sheryl Kara Sandberg is an American businesswoman who has served as the chief operating officer of Facebook since 2008.

Prior to Facebook, Sandberg was vice president of global online sales and operations at Google. She also was involved in launching Google's philanthropic arm Google.org.

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World's most influential businesspeople

Last updated on: April 20, 2012 09:54 IST
Sara Blakely.

Sara Blakely

Sara Blakely founded Spanx, a multi-million dollar undergarment company. She is the world's youngest self-made female billionaire. She graduated from Florida State University, with a degree in communications.

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World's most influential businesspeople

Last updated on: April 20, 2012 09:54 IST
Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks on stage during an Apple event introducing the new iPad in San Francisco.

Tim Cook

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, who died on October 5, 2011, from pancreatic cancer.

Cook had previously served as acting CEO of Apple after Jobs began a medical leave in January 2011.

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World's most influential businesspeople

Last updated on: April 20, 2012 09:54 IST
Sam Palmisano and Virginia M.

Virginia Rometty

Virginia Marie 'Ginni' Rometty is 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.

She has been named to Fortune magazine's '50 Most Powerful Women in Business' for seven consecutive years.

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World's most influential businesspeople

Last updated on: April 20, 2012 09:54 IST
Director of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde.

Christine Lagarde

Christine Lagarde is a French lawyer and the managing director of the International Monetary Fund since July 5, 2011.
She has held various ministerial posts in the French government.

Lagarde was the first woman ever to become minister of Economic Affairs of a G8 economy, and is the first woman to ever head the IMF.

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World's most influential businesspeople

Last updated on: April 20, 2012 09:54 IST
Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi attends the monthly news conference in Frankfurt.

Mario Draghi

Mario Draghi is an Italian banker and economist and President of the European Central Bank. He was previously the governor of the Bank of Italy from January 2006 until October 2011.

Draghi is a trustee at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey and also at the Brookings Institution, in Washington, D.C.

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World's most influential businesspeople

Last updated on: April 20, 2012 09:54 IST
-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (R) meets with the CEO of Brazil's state oil company Petroleo Brasileiro Maria das Gracas Silva Foster (L) in Brasilia.

Maria Das Gracas Silva Foster

Maria Das Gracas Silva Foster serves as Director for Gas & Energy and is a Member of the Executive Board of Petrobras Distribuidora.

Foster serves as Director of Gas & Energy at Petroleo Brasileiro. She was Chief Gas and Energy Officer of Petroleo Brasileiro since September 21, 2007.