The Most Influential People Across History
Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines
Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.
Students and researchers now have a fast and reliable way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you want to find history’s most influential philsosophers, or the world’s most influential mathematicians currently, now you can.
We also provide custom rankings of people by discipline as well as interviews with influential academics who are currently active.
To use this tool, select the discipline (and optional subdiscipline) relevant to your research, and specify influential academics by history, world, or US. Even results that are counterintuitive are often enlightening (our algorithm always picks up a signal).
Methodology: How and Why We Rank by Influence …
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List of the most influential people in Business,
#651
Joseph F. Hair
#128413
Overall Influence
#652
Ross L. Watts
#128448
Overall Influence
#653
D. M. Burnes Boje
#128535
Overall Influence
#654
Henri-Claude de Bettignies
#111243
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (86 years)
Henri-Claude de Bettignies is a French professor of business. He holds the EU Chair for Global Governance and Sino-European Business Relations at the China Europe International Business School , is director of the Europe China Center for Leadership and Responsibility. He is AVIVA Chair Professor of Leadership and Responsibility at INSEAD, specialized in Asian business, leadership, business ethics and corporate social responsibility. He is one of the longest-serving faculty at the INSEAD MBA Programme, where he coordinates several executive education programs.
Go to Profile#655
Cheryl S. McWatters
#111078
Overall Influence
Cheryl S. McWatters is professor and Father Edgar Thivierge Chair in Business History at the Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa. Education and career She was previously a professor at the University of Alberta and associate professor at McGill University. McWatters is a qualified accountant and earned her B.A., M.B.A. and Ph.D. all from Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario. Her work relates primarily to seventeenth and eighteenth century international trading networks. She is a trustee and former president of the Academy of Accounting Historians. McWatters established the Geral...
Go to Profile#656
Aleda Roth
#122259
Overall Influence
Aleda Marie V. Roth is an American business scholar, operations researcher, and management scientist, specializing in supply chain management. She is the Burlington Industries Distinguished Professor of Supply Chain Management in the Clemson University College of Business and Behavioral Science.
Go to Profile#657
Lubos Pastor
#101069
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (50 years)
Lubos Pastor is a Slovakian-American financial economist, currently the Charles P. McQuaid Professor of Finance and Robert King Steel Faculty Fellow at Booth School of Business, University of Chicago. He earned his Ph.D. in finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Go to Profile#658
Federico Faggin
#62959
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (83 years)
Federico Faggin is an Italian physicist, engineer, inventor and entrepreneur. He is best known for designing the first commercial microprocessor, the Intel 4004. He led the 4004 project and the design group during the first five years of Intel's microprocessor effort. Faggin also created, while working at Fairchild Semiconductor in 1968, the self-aligned MOS silicon-gate technology , which made possible MOS semiconductor memory chips, CCD image sensors, and the microprocessor. After the 4004, he led development of the Intel 8008 and 8080, using his SGT methodology for random logic chip design, which was essential to the creation of early Intel microprocessors.
Go to Profile#659
Andrew Grove
#85758
Overall Influence
1936 - 2016 (80 years)
Andrew Stephen Grove was a Hungarian-American businessman and engineer who served as the third CEO of Intel Corporation. He escaped from the Hungarian People's Republic during the 1956 revolution at the age of 20 and moved to the United States, where he finished his education. He was the third employee and eventual third CEO of Intel, transforming the company into the world's largest semiconductor company.
Go to Profile#660
Bruce Dehning
#104004
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (59 years)
Bruce Dehning is an American professor and scholar who spent almost his entire career in the collegiate realm. He is known primarily for his work researching the effect of information technology on firm performance for which he is a two-time winner of the Notable Contribution to the Accounting Information Systems Literature award
Go to Profile#661
Philip R. Brown
#129438
Overall Influence
#662
Nada Kakabadse
#95542
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (71 years)
Nada K. Kakabadse is Professor of Policy, Governance and Ethics at Henley Business School, University of Reading. She has also published extensively on the subject of management and has worked as a consultant for a number of multinational corporations.
Go to Profile#663
Robert William Scapens
#129515
Overall Influence
#664
Erkko Autio
#129552
Overall Influence
#665
Martin S. Kenney
#129575
Overall Influence
#666
Derek Bryson Park
#99264
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
Derek Bryson Park is an American businessman and public servant. Park has held a number of public positions in his career, including director of the Federal Home Loan Banks, vice-chairman of New York City Industrial Development Agency and director of the New York City Economic Development Corporation.
Go to Profile#667
Stephanie Pollack
#62545
Overall Influence
Stephanie Pollack is an American government official who served as the deputy administrator of the Federal Highway Administration. Pollack also served as acting administrator pending Senate confirmation of administrator nominee Shailen Bhatt. From 2015 to 2021 Pollack served as the secretary and CEO of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. Pollack previously worked for the Conservation Law Foundation , the Greater Boston Institute, BlueWave Strategies, and Northeastern University before starting her position at MassDOT. Pollack was the first female secretary of transportation in Mas...
Go to Profile#668
Warner P. Woodworth
#105976
Overall Influence
Warner P. Woodworth is a global social entrepreneur and professor emeritus in the Department of Management in the Marriott School of Business at Brigham Young University . He is a leading advocate of development of microcredit and has been involved in researching as well as developing such programs.
Go to Profile#669
Go¨ran Svensson
#129873
Overall Influence
#670
Gérard Detourbet
#73041
Overall Influence
1946 - 2019 (73 years)
Gérard Detourbet was a French automotive manager at Renault, where he was Managing Director of the Renault–Nissan Alliance "Alliance A Segment Development Unit". Career Detourbet was a university mathematics lecturer before joining Renault's computer training center in 1971. Later, he ran through a variety of positions within the Renault Group. These included being responsible for the development of the body of the Renault 25, a product manager for engines, and later for the drive trains.
Go to Profile#671
Menachem Brenner
#89843
Overall Influence
Menachem Brenner is a professor of finance and a Bank and Financial Analysts Faculty Fellow at New York University Stern School of Business. Biography Brenner's primary areas of research include derivative markets, hedging, option pricing, and the stock market. He developed the VIX volatility index based on the prices of traded index options.
Go to Profile#672
Jennifer M. George
#130306
Overall Influence
#673
Robert Winter
#92160
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (64 years)
Robert Winter is a German business theorist, Professor of business & information systems engineering at the University of St. Gallen, and director of its Institute of Information Management. He is known for his contributions in the field of Enterprise Architecture and Business Engineering.
Go to Profile#674
H. Igor Ansoff
#130513
Overall Influence
#675
Ravi Jaya Shankar
#130539
Overall Influence
#676
Gerard Joseph Tellis
#130940
Overall Influence
#677
Glenn Parry
#115984
Overall Influence
Glenn Parry is a professor in Digital Transformation at University of Surrey and was formally Professor of strategy and operations management at Bristol Business School, UWE. and senior visiting fellow with the University of Bath, UK. He authored and edited the textbook titled Service Design and Delivery published by Springer.
Go to Profile#678
Kevin D. Stocks
#109963
Overall Influence
Kevin D. Stocks is an accounting professor in the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University. He currently holds the KPMG Professorship and recently stepped down as the Director of the School of Accountancy, a position he held for the last nine years. This year he is involved as Professor in Residence with KPMG.
Go to Profile#679
Wagner Antonio Kamakura
#131213
Overall Influence
#680
O. C. Ferrell
#131218
Overall Influence
#681
Stanley Fant Slater
#131420
Overall Influence
#682
John Lorne Campbell
#131434
Overall Influence
#683
Jackson Nickerson
#102757
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (62 years)
Jackson Nickerson is an American academic who studies leadership, organizations, and strategy. Nickerson was the Frahm Family Professor of Organization and Strategy in Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. He also was the Associate Dean and Director of Brookings Executive Education from 2009-2017, was a non-resident Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution from 2010-2020, and is a Fellow of the Strategic Management Society.
Go to Profile#684
Cynthia Warrick
#66075
Overall Influence
Cynthia Warrick is the seventh president of Stillman College, a liberal arts college in the West Tuscaloosa area of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Before starting a career in higher education, she practiced as a licensed pharmacist. Warrick has two children, Alan Warrick II, a member of the San Antonio City Council, and Whitney Blair Craig, a federal and state lobbyist.
Go to Profile#685
Janet Hoek
#62431
Overall Influence
Janet Anne Hoek is a New Zealand academic, she was promoted to full professor at Massey University in 2003 and was appointed full professor at the University of Otago. Academic career After a 1996 PhD titled 'Some effects of question wording and question administration on the prediction of voting behaviour' at the Massey University, Hoek moved to the University of Otago, rising to full professor.
Go to Profile#686
Winston Tellis
#116925
Overall Influence
Winston Tellis is the Stephen and Camille Schramm Professor of Information Systems and Operations Management at The Charles F. Dolan School of Business at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut. He was a recipient of a Fairfield University Distinguished Faculty/Administrator Award in 2000.
Go to Profile#687
John J. Garstka
#34774
Overall Influence
John Joseph Garstka is the acting CISO for acquisition and sustainment at the Department of Defense Biography Garstka is a recognized international speaker and has delivered the Network Centric Warfare message to military and commercial audiences worldwide. In addition, he has lectured at Harvard University, Georgetown University, the University of California at Irvine, University of Maryland, the Army War College, the Air War College, the Naval War College, and the Naval Postgraduate School.
Go to Profile#688
Qing-rong Huang
#133001
Overall Influence
#689
Dieter Schams
#133348
Overall Influence
#690
Sally Mason
#27244
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Sally Kay Mason is an American academic administrator. She became the 20th president of the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa, on August 1, 2007. She retired on August 1, 2015. Early life and education Mason was born Sally Viparina in New York and grew up in New Jersey. She graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1972 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in zoology, and as such was the first member of her family to graduate from college. She then earned a Master of Science from Purdue University in 1974, followed by a Ph.D. in 1978 from the University of Arizona in cellular, molecular, a...
Go to Profile#691
Kose John
#133406
Overall Influence
#692
Mahmoud Ezzamel
#115675
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (82 years)
Mahmoud Ezzamel is a Professorial Fellow at Cardiff University. He is particularly notable for his research contributions to behavioural accounting, accounting in the public sector and accounting history.
Go to Profile#693
Raymond-Alain Thietart
#111002
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (80 years)
Raymond-Alain Thietart is a French business school professor. He is the author of eight books on strategy and management and over a hundred articles in the same field. His research and teaching focus on organization theory and strategic management.
Go to Profile#694
Richard Geoffrey Sloan
#133596
Overall Influence
#695
Joseph Timothy Mahoney
#133637
Overall Influence
#696
Philip Lecturer In Banking And Finance Molyneux
#133879
Overall Influence
#697
Stefan Stremersch
#121140
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (52 years)
Stefan Stremersch holds the Desiderius Erasmus Distinguished Chair of Economics and a Chair of Marketing, both at Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Previously he held positions at IESE Business School, Barcelona, Spain, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, USA, Goizueta Business School, Emory University, USA, USC Marshall School of Business, USA, and Ghent University, Belgium. His main research interests focus on innovation diffusion, marketing of technology and science, marketing strategy, new product growth, business economics of the life sciences and commercialization of new technologies.
Go to Profile#698
Dawn Anita Hunter
#134069
Overall Influence
#699
Asen Asenov
#133265
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Asen Asenov is a Bulgarian scientist and entrepreneur in the field of microelectronics and device modelling and has focused on Technology Computer Aided design . Currently he is the James Watt Chair in Electrical Engineering at the University of Glasgow and the Leader of the Glasgow Device Modeling Group.
Go to Profile#700
David Andrew Waldman
#134315
Overall Influence
