50 People Who Matter 2011

The New Statesman’s list of individuals with global influence and the power to change our world.

What do Lady Gaga and David Cameron have in common? Julian Assange and Steve Jobs? Jacob Zuma and Angelina Jolie? They all have world-changing potential. And they are new entries in our annual list of the individuals who have global influence – for good or ill.
The New Statesman 50 People Who Matter 2010 are:
1. (2) Rupert Murdoch
2. (1) Barack Obama
3. (-) Mahmoud Ahmedinijad
4. (10) Xi Jinping
5. (-) Steve Jobs
6. (26) Pope Benedict XVI
7. (24) Ashfaq Kayani
8. (12) Angela Merkel
9. (4) Eric Schmidt, Larry Page & Sergey Brin
10. (44) Hugo Chavez
11. (-) Binyamin Netanyahu
12. (12) David Petraeus
13. (-) Sarah Palin
14. (-) Craig Venter
15. (-) David Cameron
16. (13) Bill Gates
17. (-) Felipe Calderon
18. (-) Khaled Meshal
19. (25) Warren Buffett
20. (7) Vladimir Putin
21. (8) Osama bin Laden
22. (-) Angelina Jolie
23. (-) Julian Assange
24. (-) Lloyd Blankfein
25. (-) Hillary Clinton
26. (-) Mark Zuckerberg
27. (-) Ratan Tata
28. (-) Stephenie Meyer
29. (31) Sonia Gandhi
30. (-) James Cameron
31. (28) Ingvar Kamprad
32. (-) Stephen McIntyre
33. (-) Moqtada al-Sadr
34. (-) Aung San Suu Kyi
35. (-) Margaret Chan
36. (-) Jacob Zuma
37. (-) Bob Diamond
38. (35) Oprah Winfrey
39. (-) Paul Krugman
40. (36) Mohammed Yunus
41. (34) Simon Cowell
42. (-) Zaha Hadid
43. (22) Amartya Sen
44. (-) Lady Gaga
45. (6) Malalai Joya
46. (-) John Lasseter
47. (-) Julia Gillard
48. (-) Han Han
49. (14) Paul Kagame
50. (-) Caster Semenya
Previous year's ranking in brackets, with (-) denoting a new entry.