Trending

Tech’s most powerful personalities

Staff Writer

 ·31 Oct 2013

Forbes has listed its pick of the most powerful people in the world for 2013, with big names in tech dotted all over the list of 72 personalities.

Every year, Forbes compiles its list of the most powerful people in the world following the guidelines of four criteria:

• Must have power over a lot of people;
• Must have control over large financial resources;
• Are powerful figures in many spheres/sectors;
• Must actively make use of their power.

Each candidate was looked at in their own personal contexts, and the final choices were decided by an average score derived from rankings made by senior Forbes editors.

While the top positions of the rankings are mostly filled by heads of state and financial leaders, many big players in the tech and telecommunications industry also featured.

In it’s 2013 rankings, Forbes listed Russian president Vladimir Putin as the world’s most powerful man, taking the prime position from US president Barack Obama, who slipped to second place, ahead of Chinese general secretary of the communist party, Xi Jinping.

Forbes power list top 5

Looking at tech

Once again, the top tech power player is former Microsoft CEO and founder, Bill Gates.

In 2013, Gates managed to trump tech power leader number two – Carlos Helu Slim – as the world’s richest man, amassing a fortune of $72 billion. Aside from his immense wealth he is also a powerful force in philanthropy, co-chairing the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Gates was listed as the fourth most powerful person in the world in 2012, but slipped two spots in the 2013 rankings to sixth.

Gates is the only major tech player featured in the top 10 list, overall, but Mexican telecom player, Carlos Slim Helu of América Móvil norrowly missed out – ranking 12th overall – though he remains the second most powerful tech and telecoms figure, according to Forbes.

The list also saw new tech power players rank, including Amazon founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos (15th), who drew media attention by buying The Washington Post newspaper for $250 milllion of his own cash, making him the 3rd most powerful man in tech.

Google co-founder, Sergey Brin and CEO, Larry Page, tie for 4th place (17th overall) – as directors of the world’s biggest search and Internet company – while Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg (24th overall) fell to the 7th most powerful figure in tech, below Apple CEO, Tim Cook (19th overall).

Elon Musk

South African-born Tesla Motors and SpaceX founder and CEO, Elon Musk, is also present in the rankings – riding his electric car, space freight, Hyperloop and 007 submarine dreams to 47th on the overall most powerful list (up from 66th in 2012).

Newcomers, Samsung Group head, Lee Kun-Hee (41st), Virginia Rometty, CEO of IBM (56th), Oracle’s Larry Ellison (58th) and founder of China’s search giant, Baidu’s Robin Li (61st) also round off tech’s most powerful people.

The most powerful people in Tech

You can find the full list of Forbes’ 72 most powerful people in the world here.

More on power lists

Forbes lists Africa’s power players

Richest IT people in South Africa

South Africa’s richest people

Forbes lists Africa’s power players

Forbes lists 1,226 billionaires around the globe