CNBC has released “CNBC First 25,” a ranked list of the 25 people CNBC judges to have had the most profound impact on business and finance since 1989, the year CNBC went live. They have disrupted industries, sparked change and exercised an influence far beyond their own companies.
As CNBC embarks on its second quarter-century, it faces a world completely altered from when it started. Then, the Dow was below 2,400, Wal-Mart didn’t make the list of America’s 500 largest companies and there was no World Wide Web. Only four U.S. companies had annual revenue of more than $50 billion. Today there are more than 50, including upstarts such as Apple Inc. No dictionary contained the words “e-commerce” or “app.” A blog was still archaic slang for a servant boy.
The 25 men and women on the list — from different parts of the world and across different industries — have, for better or worse, been the rebels, icons and leaders in the vanguard of that change.
“We made the decision early on to eliminate heads of government and state from our deliberations. This is a list, after all, about business people, not politicians. It’s about the men and women who, for better or worse, have had the most transformative effect on commerce, finance, markets, human behavior and global culture over the past 25 years,” CNBC’s Tyler Mathisen explains. “This not a list of billionaires, though many of the people on it are. Money is not the measure. Revolutionary, or evolutionary, impact is… You could argue that Sir Tim Berners-Lee, father of the World Wide Web (sorry Al Gore), deserves not only to be in the top 25—as several of our number did—but to be No. 1, as the Gutenberg of our era. In the end, our collective judgment was that Berners-Lee was less a business leader than a computer scientist who transformed how we share information.”
1. Steve Jobs: His creative genius revolutionized not just his industry and its products, but also everything from music and movies to smartphones. He provided a platform for others to create and distribute apps, bringing innovation and change to an even wider sphere. Apple’s co-founder tops our anniversary list of the 25 most transformative leaders, icons and rebels of the past-quarter century. More than any other member of our group of extraordinary entrepreneurs and executives—all outstanding leaders—his vision spurred changes far beyond his industry and put an indelible stamp on the wider culture.
2. Bill Gates
3. Ben Bernanke & Alan Greenspan
4. Sergey Brin‚ Larry Page & Eric Schmidt
5. Jeff Bezos
6. Warren Buffett
7. Oprah Winfrey
8. Mark Zuckerberg
9. Jack Bogle
10. Larry Ellison
11. Rupert Murdoch
12. Jack Welch
13. NR Narayana Murthy
14. Howard Schultz
15. Bernard Arnault
16. Li Ka-shing
17. Carl Icahn
18. Meg Whitman
19. Amancio Ortega
20. Michael Bloomberg
21. Sandy Weill
22. Cher Wang
23. Aliko Dangote
24. Martha Stewart
25. Carlos Slim
Read more about each person here.
MacDailyNews Take: Steve Jobs #1.
Kiss butt much? BG #2? Puh-leeze.
Tim Cook is at number: 2,515,694,017
Right on the bottom, his preferred position.
A dripping sink is more interesting than this guy.
This guy will NEVER be remembered for anything more than an effeminate clown who babysat Apple for a few years, and coasted along, riding off the genius of a deceased icon!
Did you make the list? Didn’t think so.
Bill Gates…
He maybe was the first to think up leveraging a Software-Suite… to kill all competition…
That earned him #2… this is an impact list… NOT an innovation list.
Looking at this list, I’m a little less happy Jobs is on it, even if he is at the top.
Apart from number one mostly a rather motley unpleasent collection. Worrying if that lot are deemed movers and shakers… at least in a positive way. Certainly not many role models there.
No Elon Musk? Agree 100% with Jobs being #1. Musk should have been in top 10.
Agreed,
Elon Musk should be in this list. To have the Google boys on this list is absolutely egregious . They are a one trick pony ( internet search). If they were so evolutionary they would not have almost sold Google in 1998 for less than a million bucks. Any Schmidt is attached to that list???
Ridiculous
Agreed! Zuckerburg??? Really? Facebook is nothing but AOL with minor tweaks. He has no business being on this list.
Facebook is a rip-off of MySpace. Murdoch should be much higher on the list given his other accomplishment of being laughed at when he launched Fox News. Now beating CNBC, CNN, MSNBC and all comers to a pulp!
I think I’d put Jack Ruby before Carl Icahn.
since 1989?!
artistic license. gimme a break.
Jack Welch at # 12?????
Oprah Winfrey @ #7????
There must have only been 26 people on their candidates list.
If you don’t like the list, disrupt it.
I know this won’t resonate with many here but I would put Sara Blakely someplace on that list. What she has done with Spanx and how it has completely changed the women’s “garment” industry along with other areas of clothing is amazing. From women’s garments to sporting wear and men’s wear. It may not be as flattering as Wedding dresses but it rivals anything Martha (crook) Stuart has done in my opinion.
Plus, she’s hot and driven.
Right on all counts 🙂
I can’t say this with a straight face, but spandex was god’s gift to me \\s
! -)
p.s. I ike the avatar cycling, have not had enuff time to do that, most of my posts to this site are done flying…it is good to see you evolve, since you already were pretty evoled.. and your avatars evolved pretty evolved too
I don’t care much for CNBC but I do like the fact that SJ is #1!!! Hurray!!! Boo on Ichannotshutup. Why?
24. Martha Stewart?? The failed inside trader.
FAIL!
Whenever someone publishes a high-visibility top-10, 20, 50 or whatever list of some sort, there will be hundreds of comments lamenting how someone was missing, or how someone else was undeserving a spot. All these comments usually have the same thing in common: they take that list to represent top-10 best people all-round. In other words, they always IGNORE what the list is actually about.
For example, here: this is a list of people who had most profound impact on business, disrupted industries and sparked change. The impact on business may be positive or NEGATIVE (as is the case of Bill Gates), but it must be profound and well beyond the size of their own company.
While Elon Musk is no doubt a great visionary, the impact of Tesla Motors beyond his own company and industry is realistically negligible at this point.
Musk is more than Tesla. Both of his companies are redefining their respective markets
Megalomaniac Oprah Winfrey? Ms it’s all about me? An overpaid gossipmonger who believes her own PR.
The only impact Ms Winfrey has had was a debasing of the culture.
Interesting Agent Pro. Of all the people to single out you chose a plump woman of color?
She had a talk show that took the low road. Great accomplishment.
Musk- not on the list- had a hand in PayPal, has a spaceflight company, an electric car company and a solar power company.
It is not about race or sex or being fat. She has done nothing to merit being on the list. She does, however, possess the largest cash pile for someone with no discernible talent worthy of such renumeration.
I can’t believe you responded! 😀
Except for Steve Jobs, what a bunch of pussies!!!
Bill Gates wouldn’t even be on the list without Steve Jobs!!
Or without his golden spoon from parents and direct connections to IBM through parents. Oh add the dumb execs that fell for his BS about having an existing OS ready for IBM to use.