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,
#1101
Eric Schulz
#178237
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Eric Schulz is a US marketing management and sport management expert, faculty member of the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business and author of three books on marketing. Biography Early life Eric Schulz was born in 1957. In his youth he played baseball and basketball, and while studying at Orem High School in 1974 he participated in setting the world record for basketball marathon, a 45-hour game which record was published in the 1974 Guinness Book of Records. After graduating from Orem High School in 1976 Schulz went to study political science at Brigham Young University in Provo where he rec...
Go to Profile#1102
Nobutaka Ike
#93038
Overall Influence
1916 - 2005 (89 years)
Nobutaka Ike was a Stanford University professor of Japanese and East Asian politics. He wrote many books on the Japanese political system. Early life and education Nobutaka Ike was born in Seattle as a US citizen to parents who immigrated from Japan. He studied political science at University of Washington and got his BA in 1940. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he was forcibly relocated to Camp Harmony, but was released in summer 1942 due to his willingness to assist the US Navy with translation work. After the war, he resumed his studies and got his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins U...
Go to Profile#1103
Michael J. Callahan
#134305
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (56 years)
Michael John Callahan is an American lawyer and corporate executive. Education Callahan graduated from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service with a degree in international affairs and Arab studies in the late '80s. In 1995, he graduated from the University of Connecticut School of Law.
Go to Profile#1104
Joseph Engelberger
#134960
Overall Influence
1925 - 2015 (90 years)
Joseph Frederick Engelberger was an American physicist, engineer and entrepreneur. Licensing the original patent awarded to inventor George Devol, Engelberger developed the first industrial robot in the United States, the Unimate, in the 1950s. Later, he worked as entrepreneur and vocal advocate of robotic technology beyond the manufacturing plant in a variety of fields, including service industries, health care, and space exploration.
Go to Profile#1105
Ben Baldanza
#177782
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (63 years)
Basil Ben Baldanza is an economist and was the chief executive officer and president of Spirit Airlines from 2005 to 2016, a period in which he led the transformation of the company into an ultra-low-cost carrier.
Go to Profile#1106
John Thompson
#179841
Overall Influence
John Thompson, has been the Roger M Bale Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, United Kingdom, since 1997. In 2009, he was awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion.
Go to Profile#1107
Joel Zwick
#107406
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (82 years)
Joel Rudolf Zwick is an American film director, television director, and theater director. He worked on the television series Perfect Strangers, Full House, and Family Matters, and directed the films My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Second Sight, and Fat Albert.
Go to Profile#1108
Özlem Denizmen
#178986
Overall Influence
Ozlem Denizmen is the Head of Strategy at Dogus Holding, one of Turkey's major conglomerates and a board member at Dogus Automotive, an Istanbul Stock Exchange-30 company. Denizmen started her career at Merrill Lynch Investment Bank as a financial analyst in 1994. She holds a B.S. degree from Cornell University in Industrial Management and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. Denizmen attended leadership programs at Stanford University, GE Crotonville and Harvard Business School.
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Joseph F. Hair Jr.
#179471
Overall Influence
Joseph F. Hair Jr. is an American author, consultant, and professor. Currently he serves as Distinguished Professor of Marketing, is the holder of the Cleverdon Chair of Business and Director of the PhD program at the Mitchell College of Business at the University of South Alabama. Previously he held the positions of Senior Scholar, DBA program at the Michael J. Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University, and held the Copeland Endowed Chair of Entrepreneurship in the Ourso College of Business Administration at Louisiana Louisiana State University. He has authored over 75 editions ...
Go to Profile#1110
Dominique Xardel
#176500
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (90 years)
Dominique Xardel is an author and marketing professor in France. From 1978–1988, Xardel was director of ESSEC Business School He was Editor in Chief of the Harvard L'Expansion, the French version of the Harvard Business Review. As of 2005, he was Associate Dean for International Affairs at ESSEC. He holds a Doctorate degree from the University of Paris IX-Dauphine. Xardel worked for businesses such as Unilever and Time Inc before joining ESSEC, and he has taught at Geneva Business School in Switzerland. Xardel has authored various books on marketing
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Thomas Ashley Graves Jr.
#110552
Overall Influence
1924 - 2016 (92 years)
Thomas Ashley Graves Jr. was an American academic who was the twenty-third president of the College of William & Mary, serving from 1971 to 1985. He next served as director of the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library from 1985 to 1992. His personal papers as well as his papers from his time as president of the College of William & Mary, are held by the Special Collections Research Center at the College of William & Mary.
Go to Profile#1112
J.
#181167
Overall Influence
#1113
Heinz Weihrich
#137059
Overall Influence
Heinz Weihrich is an author, management consultant, and a professor of Global Management and Administration at the University of San Francisco. Education He has a PhD from UCLA and was a visiting scholar at, the University of California, Berkeley and Harvard University. a<sc a<sc
Go to Profile#1114
John Harrison
#102984
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
John S. Harrison Jr. is an American filmmaker, musician, and composer best known for his collaborations with director George A. Romero and for writing-directing the miniseries adaptation of Dune. Early life and career Harrison was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Emerson College in Boston with a BS in Theater Arts and is an MFA graduate of Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama. For several years after that, he performed on the road with his band Homebrew before moving back to Pittsburgh to take a master's degree in film and television from Carnegie Mellon University.
Go to Profile#1115
John C. Bravman
#49170
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
John C. Bravman is an American academic administrator who is currently serving as the 17th president of Bucknell University. He came to Bucknell after a 35-year career at Stanford University, where he served as the Freeman-Thornton Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, Dean of the Freshman and Sophomore College, and Bing Centennial Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. He also serves as the chair of the board of directors at Geisinger Health System.
Go to Profile#1116
Alan David Freeman
#181510
Overall Influence
#1117
Sue VandeWoude
#114588
Overall Influence
Susan VandeWoude is an American veterinarian and researcher specializing in viral diseases of cats. She is currently serving as the Dean of Colorado State University's College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Go to Profile#1118
Euh Yoon-dae
#170176
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (79 years)
Euh Yoon-Dae is a South Korean professor, financier, and advisor for the South Korean government. He served as Chairman of KB Financial Group and of the Presidential Council on Nation Branding, Korea.
Go to Profile#1119
Kristina M. Johnson
#159663
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Kristina M. Johnson is an American business executive and academic administrator. She previously served as the 13th chancellor of the State University of New York from 2017 to 2020 and the 16th president of Ohio State University from 2020 to 2023. She has knowledge in the development of optoelectronic processing systems, 3-D imaging, and color-management systems.
Go to Profile#1120
Qiang Cheng
#181682
Overall Influence
#1121
Eugene Secunda
#177407
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (90 years)
Eugene Secunda isn American academci who is a member of the faculty in the Department of Media, Culture & Communication at New York University. He is also an academic adviser in NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Study. He previously served on the business school faculties of New York University, City University of New York and Adelphi University. Secunda was awarded New York University Teaching Excellence Awards in 2003 and 2018. He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship Award to lecture at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia in 2006. The co-author of Selling War to America: From the Sp...
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Jane Buckingham
#168813
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (56 years)
Jane Ruth Buckingham is an American author and businesswoman who founded the consumer insights firm Trendera. She is known for writing "The Modern Girl's Guide to Life" book series, which spawned the television series of the same name. She was convicted in the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal.
Go to Profile#1123
Sanjai Bhagat
#171944
Overall Influence
Sanjai Bhagat is the Professor of Finance at the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder. He serves as an independent director on corporate boards, and advises various government agencies on corporate finance and corporate governance.
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Anousheh Ansari
#120809
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (58 years)
Anousheh Ansari is an Iranian American engineer and co-founder and chairwoman of Prodea Systems. Her previous business accomplishments include serving as co-founder and CEO of Telecom Technologies, Inc. . The Ansari family is also the title sponsor of the Ansari X Prize. On September 18, 2006, a few days after her 40th birthday, she became the first Iranian in space. Ansari was the fourth overall self-funded space tourist, and the first self-funded woman to fly to the International Space Station. Her memoir, My Dream of Stars, co-written with Homer Hickam, was published by Palgrave Macmillan ...
Go to Profile#1125
Fabian Leendertz
#168969
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (52 years)
Fabian Hubertus Leendertz is a German biologist, veterinarian, and expert on zoonosis, specialising his research on primates, studying leprosy and anthrax in chimpanzees since 2014. In 2020, he was appointed to the team researching the origins of COVID-19 by the World Health Organization, and was awarded a Champions of the Earth award by the United Nations. In 2021, he began a project group researching epidemiology and pathogenicity at the Robert Koch Institute, was appointed founding director of the Helmholtz Institute for One Health, and started a professorship at the University of Greifswa...
Go to Profile#1126
John Whitelegg
#159158
Overall Influence
John Whitelegg is visiting professor of sustainable transport at Liverpool John Moores University and professor of sustainable development at University of York's Stockholm Environment Institute. Academic career From 1990 to 1993 Whitelegg was head of department of geography at Lancaster University and director of the university's Environmental Epidemiology Research Unit. He has written books and over 50 papers, including Transport for a Sustainable Society: the Case for Europe and Critical Mass: Transport, Environment and Society in the 21st Century , and is founder and editor of the Journal...
Go to Profile#1127
Edir Macedo
#134264
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (79 years)
Edir Macedo is a Brazilian evangelical bishop, writer, billionaire businessman, and the founder of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God . He is the owner and chairman of the third-largest television network in Brazil, Record, along with Grupo Record since 1989, which he founded after he bought the network.
Go to Profile#1128
Dennis Griffin
#130959
Overall Influence
Dennis Griffin is an American academic administrator, who served as interim president of the College of Western Idaho. Prior to coming to the College of Western Idaho, Griffin had worked for fifteen years at Boise State University.
Go to Profile#1129
William Rea Keast
#43994
Overall Influence
1914 - 1998 (84 years)
William Rea Keast was an American scholar and academic administrator who served as president of Wayne State University from 1965 to 1971. Biography Education Keast was born on November 1, 1914, in Malta, Illinois. He attended the University of Chicago and received his Bachelor's in 1936. He continued his doctoral studies at Chicago but World War II forced him to serve in the United States Armed Forces from 1941 to 1946. He rose to the rank of major. Returning to the University of Chicago on a Rockefeller Postwar Fellowship, he earned his doctorate in 1947.
Go to Profile#1130
Sven Pagel
#177601
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (51 years)
Sven Pagel is a German professor of business informatics and media management. His research focuses on digital moving image communication in Internet media, UX and user research, and digital transformation. Since 2013 Pagel has been teaching at the University of Applied Sciences in Mainz.
Go to Profile#1131
Roger H. Brown
#176751
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
Roger H. Brown is an American businessman, philanthropist, and academic administrator and former president of Berklee College of Music. Brown is also the co-founder of Bright Horizons and founder and chairman of the Salt Lick Incubator.
Go to Profile#1132
Andrew Godley
#177250
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (61 years)
Andrew Godley is a British economist, and a professor of Management and Business History at the Henley Business School at University of Reading, where he is also Pro Dean of Resources and Partnerships. He is a Visiting Professor at Zhejiang University and Wharton School and Center for Advanced Jewish Studies, University of Pennsylvania.
Go to Profile#1133
Patrick Utomi
#170945
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
Patrick Okedinachi Utomi is a Nigerian professor of political economy and management expert. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants of Nigeria and a former presidential candidate. He is the founder of Centre for Value in Leadership and the African Democratic Congress. He is a professor at Lagos Business School, and has served in senior positions in government, as an adviser to the president of Nigeria, the private sector, as Chief Operating Officer of Volkswagen Nigeria.
Go to Profile#1134
Jeremy Moon
#180343
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (69 years)
Jeremy Moon is a British academic. Moon earned a bachelor's of arts degree in politics from the University of Exeter, and completed a doctoral degree in the subject from the same institution. He has taught at the University of Nottingham, the University of North London, the University of Western Australia, the University of Strathclyde, the University of Keele, and the Copenhagen Business School, where he was the Velux Professor of Corporate Sustainability. Moon has also held the Gourlay Visiting Professorship of Ethics in Business at Trinity College, University of Melbourne. In 2005, the Asp...
Go to Profile#1135
Padmasree Warrior
#152003
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (63 years)
Padmasree Warrior is an Indian-American businesswoman and technology executive. She is known for her leadership roles in technology firms like Cisco where she served as the CTO for seven years, and at Motorola where she was the CTO for five years. She also served as the CEO of Nio USA, an electric car maker. Currently, she is the founder and CEO of Fable, a curated reading platform focused on mental wellness. She also serves on the board of directors of Microsoft and Spotify.
Go to Profile#1136
Rosalind Brewer
#173379
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (62 years)
Rosalind G. Brewer is an American businesswoman, and was the CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance, before stepping down in September 2023. Brewer is the first woman to become CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance, group president and COO of Starbucks, and CEO of Sam's Club.
Go to Profile#1137
Frederick Winslow Taylor
#182982
Overall Influence
#1138
Katrina Mealey
#179640
Overall Influence
Katrina Ann Mealey is an American veterinary pharmacologist. She is a Regents Professor and Richard L. Ott Endowed Chair in Small Animal Medicine and Research at Washington State University. Early life and education Mealey was born and raised in New Mexico to parents Maria Gonzales and Wayne R. Larson. She completed her Bachelor of Science degree at the University of New Mexico before marrying her husband, Robert Mealey, and enrolling together at Colorado State University for their DVM. Following her DVM, Mealey completed two internships and a residency before completing her PhD at Texas A&M ...
Go to Profile#1139
Youssef Fares
#135976
Overall Influence
Youssef Fares is a Lebanese neurosurgeon, academic and healthcare leader. He is a Professor and the Dean of the Lebanese University Faculty of Medicine, where he also serves as the founding director of the Neuroscience Research Center. Fares is also the CEO and Chairman of Al-Zahraa Hospital University Medical Center, the founding president of the Lebanese Association of Spine Surgery and the Senior Executive Vice President of the World Academy of Medical Sciences. In addition, he serves as an editor for the neurosurgical journal Surgical Neurology International.
Go to Profile#1140
Roslyn Brock
#175333
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (59 years)
Roslyn McCallister Brock is an African-American civil rights leader, healthcare executive, and health activist. She was selected to succeed Julian Bond as chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on February 20, 2010, becoming the fourth woman and the youngest person to serve in the position.
Go to Profile#1141
Samuel Culbert
#169711
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (86 years)
Samuel A. Culbert is a professor at UCLA Anderson School of Management, in the fields of organizational theory and applied behavioral science. He is known for his "trans-organizational" research methodology commentaries on workplace dynamics, identification of mismanagement practices, and theories on the sources of workplace-induced alienation.
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Johnny Walker
#168469
Overall Influence
1992 - Present (32 years)
Walker Johnny da Silva Barra de Souza , best known as Johnny Walker, is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist. He currently competes in the Light Heavyweight division in the Ultimate Fighting Championship . A professional competitor since 2013, Walker gained entrance into the UFC by competing on Dana White's Contender Series and also previously competed for Jungle Fight in his native Brazil. As of September 26, 2023, he is #7 in the UFC light heavyweight rankings.
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Romuald Zabielski
#68385
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (64 years)
Romuald Zabielski – is a Polish veterinary scientist and professor at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. In 2019 he was appointed Vice President of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He is a former director of the Kielanowski Institute of Animal Physiology and Nutrition in Jabłonna, Poland.
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Howard Krein
#127652
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (58 years)
Howard David Krein is an American otolaryngologist, plastic surgeon, and business executive. He is the husband of Ashley Biden, the daughter of United States President Joe Biden. He is an assistant professor of otolaryngology at Thomas Jefferson University and is a founding partner and co-director of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital's Facial Aesthetic and Reconstructive Center. Krein is the chief medical officer at StartUp Health, a venture capital and health technology firm. He served on the Biden Cancer Initiative's board of directors from 2017 to 2019. Krein advised the Joe Biden 2020 ...
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Harris Rosen
#171656
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (85 years)
Harris Rosen is an American businessman, investor and philanthropist. He founded Rosen Hotels & Resorts in 1974, and serves as the company's president and chief operating officer. Rosen is widely known in the Central Florida area for his philanthropy, and was named the Orlando Sentinels Central Floridian of the Year in 2011.
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Olanike Adeyemo
#101549
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (54 years)
Olanike Kudirat Adeyemo is a Nigerian professor of veterinary public health and preventive medicine at the University of Ibadan. Olanike was appointed by the Oyo State Government Under Engr. Seyi Makinde as the Secretary to the State Government on 25 July 2023.
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William Poduska
#156868
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (87 years)
John William Poduska Sr. is an American engineer and entrepreneur. He was a founder of Prime Computer, Apollo Computer, and Stellar Computer. Prior to that he headed the Electronics Research Lab at NASA's Cambridge, Massachusetts, facility and also worked at Honeywell.
Go to Profile#1148
Darren T. Roulstone
#182235
Overall Influence
Darren T. Roulstone is John W. Berry, Sr. Fund for Faculty Excellence Professor of Accounting at Fisher College of Business at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, and has been director of its Accounting and Management Information Systems PhD program since 2008. His current research interests are textual analysis of firms’ financial disclosures and how investors acquire accounting information.
Go to Profile#1149
Ricarda Winkelmann
#154014
Overall Influence
1985 - Present (39 years)
Ricarda Winkelmann is a German mathematician, physicist, and climatologist. She is a professor of Climate System Analysis at Potsdam University and the Potsdam-Institute for Climate Impact Research. She studies interdependencies between climate, land ice, and the ocean.
Go to Profile#1150
Alan Reece
#179692
Overall Influence
1927 - 2012 (85 years)
Alan Richard Reece was the owner director of Pearson Engineering Ltd, Newcastle upon Tyne. In 2012 his company won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation. Pearson Engineering developed a range of counter-mine rollers that attach to the front of wheeled and tracked military vehicles to trigger an explosion as they drive over improvised explosive devices. The rollers get blown up and the main vehicle and its occupants stay safe.
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