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,
#1201
Steven Spewak
#174976
Overall Influence
1951 - 2004 (53 years)
Steven Howard Spewak was an American management consultant, author, and lecturer on enterprise architectures, known for the development of Enterprise Architecture Planning . Biography Born in Philadelphia, Spewak earned both his B.A. and his M.A. degree at Case Western Reserve University, and earned his Ph.D. in business administration at the University of Michigan in 1981 with the thesis "Analysis of dynamics of the logical design of information systems".
Go to Profile#1202
Bruce Tabb
#169051
Overall Influence
1927 - 2022 (95 years)
James Bruce Tabb was a New Zealand accountancy academic who specialised in the history of accounting. Biography Tabb was born in San Francisco on 3 March 1927 to New Zealanders Walter James Tabb and Christina Sarah Tabb . The family returned to New Zealand in 1934, and Tabb was educated at Mount Albert Grammar School in Auckland. He later studied at Auckland University College, graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1954, and subsequently earned a Master of Commerce degree in 1963.
Go to Profile#1203
Darius Miller
#186982
Overall Influence
#1204
Michael L. Good
#59343
Overall Influence
Michael L. Good is an American anesthesiologist and the CEO of University of Utah Health , Executive Dean of the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine, and the A. Lorris Betz Senior Vice President of Health Sciences. He served as the interim president of the University of Utah from Feb-Sept. of 2021.
Go to Profile#1205
Martin White
#139150
Overall Influence
1909 - 2011 (102 years)
Martin White was an Irish hurler who played as a centre-forward for the Kilkenny senior team. White made his first appearance for the team during the 1931 championship and became a regular member of the team until his retirement following the conclusion of the 1938 championship. During that time he won three All-Ireland winner's medals and three Leinster winner's medals.
Go to Profile#1206
Irasema Alcántara-Ayala
#180852
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (54 years)
Irasema Alcántara-Ayala is a professor of Natural hazards and Risk at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She combines natural science with social sciences, and in particular studies the occurrences of landslides, natural hazards and vulnerability. She was awarded the 2016 European Geosciences Union Sergey Soloviev Medal.
Go to Profile#1207
Peter Wood
#185912
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (78 years)
Sir Peter John Wood is an English entrepreneur, most notable as the founder of the Direct Line and esure insurance companies. Wood was knighted in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to UK industry and philanthropy. In 2021 he was the 198th wealthiest person in Britain with an estimated personal fortune of £815 million, according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2021.
Go to Profile#1208
Gordon Guyer
#70813
Overall Influence
1926 - 2016 (90 years)
Gordon Earl Guyer was president of Michigan State University from 1992 to 1993. He died on March 30, 2016, aged 89. Biography Guyer attended Michigan State University beginning in 1947 where he first studied fisheries and wildlife, later switching to entomology and receiving his bachelor's degree in 1950. Two years later, he earned his master's degree, and his doctorate in 1954, both in entomology. He joined the MSU faculty in 1953 and held many leadership roles on campus. Gordon was a professor and chairperson for the entomology department, the director of MSU's Pesticide Research Center - ...
Go to Profile#1209
Mike Wilson
#181914
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (54 years)
Michael S. Wilson is an American business executive, video game producer, and film-maker. Beginning his career at DWANGO as Vice President of Development before being hired to lead marketing and publishing at id Software in 1995, Wilson has subsequently co-founded multiple independent video game publishers, including Gathering of Developers, Gamecock Media Group, Devolver Digital, Good Shepherd Entertainment, and DeepWell DTx.
Go to Profile#1210
David Goss
#187398
Overall Influence
#1211
Barbara Falkenbach Ryan
#179149
Overall Influence
Barbara Falkenbach Ryan is an American mathematician, computer scientist, statistician and business executive. She is known for developing the Minitab statistical software package, and for being president and CEO of Minitab, Inc.
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Michael D. West
#126118
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (71 years)
Michael D. West is an American biogerontologist, and a pioneer in stem cells, cellular aging and telomerase. He is the founder and CEO of AgeX Therapeutics, a startup focused on the field of experimental gerontology.
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Andrew Mackenzie
#179792
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
Sir Andrew Stewart Mackenzie is a Scottish businessman, who is the chairman of Shell plc and formerly CEO of BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company. He succeeded Marius Kloppers, on 10 May 2013, and was succeeded by Mike Henry, at the start of 2020.
Go to Profile#1214
Thomas Kean
#175629
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (89 years)
Thomas Howard Kean is an American businessman, academic administrator, and politician who served as the 48th governor of New Jersey from 1982 to 1990 and as president of Drew University from 1990 until 2005.
Go to Profile#1215
Elizabeth J. Gatewood
#187661
Overall Influence
#1216
Rosi Sexton
#84378
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (47 years)
Rosemary Ann Sexton is a British athlete, sports therapist, osteopath, and politician. She had a career in mixed martial arts , from which she retired in 2014. In 2020, Sexton ran in the Green Party leadership election and came second.
Go to Profile#1217
Jay Gogue
#84054
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (77 years)
George Jay Gogue is an American educator and 20th President of Auburn University, a position he held from 2007 until his retirement in July 2017 and again in 2019. Biography Jay Gogue was born in Waycross, Georgia, U.S. He graduated from Auburn University with a bachelor's degree in 1969, and a Master's degree in 1971. In 1973, he received a PhD in horticulture from Michigan State University.
Go to Profile#1218
Rebecca Adamson
#183447
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Rebecca Adamson is an American businessperson and advocate. She is former director, former president, and founder of First Nations Development Institute and the founder of First Peoples Worldwide. Personal life Born in Akron, Ohio, to a father of Swedish-American ancestry and of a mother who identified as being Cherokee, Adamson grew up in Akron and spent summers with her grandmother in Lumberton, North Carolina, where she learned about the history and culture of Native Americans. She holds a master of science in economic development from the Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, N...
Go to Profile#1219
Christine Poon
#186257
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Christine Ann Poon is an American business executive. She is the former vice chairman of the Johnson & Johnson Board of Directors and worldwide chairman of J&J's Pharmaceuticals Group. Early life Poon was raised as one of seven children; her mother was a nurse, and her father a physician. In a 2013 Distinguished Lecture at West Virginia University, she related how early experiences being Chinese in a predominantly white Ohio suburb shaped her character and desire to "...not be the stereotype you saw, but be who I wanted to be." Poon credits her brother for encouraging her to pursue a career ...
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Helen Nugent
#184430
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (75 years)
Helen Marion Nugent is a leading Australian company director, businesswoman and former academic. Education and early career Nugent completed a Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours and a PhD from the University of Queensland , and earned a Master of Business Administration with Distinction from the Harvard Business School.
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Michael Cooper
#187975
Overall Influence
#1222
David Smith
#187995
Overall Influence
#1223
Florence Sender
#187015
Overall Influence
1943 - 2012 (69 years)
Florence Sender was an American entrepreneur. She founded or served as a director of a number of companies. Sender taught at the MIT Sloan School of Management and co-founded its MIT Entrepreneurship Center.
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Rishi Kumar Behl
#168891
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (73 years)
Rishi Kumar Behl is an Indian scientist, professor, and author. He is former director, Universal Institute of Technology, Hansi, Hisar, Associate Dean in College of Agriculture, Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University. He is General Secretary of International Foundation for Sustainable Development in Africa and Asia, Germany. He is presently working in Maharishi Markandeshwar University, Mullana.
Go to Profile#1225
Richard Wilding
#186163
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (59 years)
Richard Wilding is a British academic and business professional specialising in logistics, transport and supply chain management. He is recognised as one of the world's leading experts in logistics and supply chain management.
Go to Profile#1226
James Richards
#150011
Overall Influence
1948 - 2007 (59 years)
James Robert Richards was an American veterinarian who was a noted expert on cats. He headed the Feline Health Center of the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine from 1997 until his death.
Go to Profile#1227
Katarzyna Sanak-Kosmowska
#142892
Overall Influence
1984 - Present (40 years)
Katarzyna Julia Sanak-Kosmowska is a Polish marketing and public relations theorist and researcher, assistant professor at the Marketing Department at the Kraków University of Economics. Biography She was born in 1984 as the daughter of Marek Sanak, a molecular biologist; and Iwona Sanak, a dentist. She attended the Bartłomiej Nowodworski High School in Kraków, where she passed the matriculation exam. Subsequently, she graduated with Bachelor's and Master's degree in management and marketing from the Jagiellonian University. In 2006, she studied at the IECS – The Strasbourg Graduate School of Management within the Socrates-Erasmus programme.
Go to Profile#1228
Shai Reshef
#181178
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (69 years)
Shai Reshef is an Israeli businessperson and academic administrator. He is the founder and president of University of the People. Biography Reshef earned an M.A. in Chinese Politics from the University of Michigan.
Go to Profile#1229
Biddy Martin
#113590
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (73 years)
Carolyn Arthur "Biddy" Martin is an American academic, author, and a former president of Amherst College, in Amherst, Massachusetts. Before becoming president at Amherst, she was Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she assumed office on September 1, 2008, succeeding John D. Wiley. She was the ninth graduate of UW–Madison to serve as its chancellor, and the first alumna to hold that position. She was the university's second female chancellor, after Donna Shalala, and also the university's first openly lesbian chancellor.
Go to Profile#1230
Elizabeth Coleman
#25894
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (87 years)
Elizabeth Coleman was the ninth president of Bennington College from 1987 to 2013. Coleman also served as the founding Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at The New School for Social Research.
Go to Profile#1231
Kia Silverbrook
#147110
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
Kia Silverbrook is an Australian independent inventor and scientist. He is one of the most prolific inventors in the world, and has been granted 4,747 US utility patents as of 14 February 2022. Internationally, he has 9,874 patents or patent applications registered at the international patent document database . Silverbrook has founded companies and developed products in a wide range of disciplines, including computer graphics, video and audio production, scientific computing, factory automation, digital printing, liquid crystal displays , molecular electronics, internet software, content man...
Go to Profile#1232
John Davis
#180966
Overall Influence
1906 - 1993 (87 years)
Sir John Henry Harris Davis CVO was an English businessman and accountant. He was the managing director, later chairman, of the Rank Organisation. Early life John Davis was born in the London in 1906 to Sidney Myring Davis and Emily Harris. He was educated at the City of London School.
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S. Mahalingam
#49938
Overall Influence
Professor S. Mahalingam was a Sri Lankan academic and veterinarian. A professor of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, he was the Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine & Animal Science at the University of Peradeniya. He was the son of V. Sivalingam, who was the founder of the Faculty of Medicine at the same university.
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Maggie Greenwald
#178782
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (69 years)
Maggie Greenwald is an American filmmaker. Most recognized as an independent writer and director, Greenwald’s most notable films include Sophie and the Rising Sun , starring an ensemble cast that included Margo Martindale, Julianne Nicholson, Lorraine Toussaint and Diane Ladd, Songcatcher starring Aidan Quinn and Janet McTeer and introducing Emmy Rossum, and The Ballad of Little Jo , starring Suzy Amis and Ian McKellen. She also directed an adaptation of Jim Thompson's The Kill-Off featuring an ensemble cast that included Cathy Haase and the film debut of Jorja Fox.
Go to Profile#1235
Gary Peters
#188704
Overall Influence
#1236
Lindsay Brown
#182764
Overall Influence
1943 - 2020 (77 years)
Lindsay John Brown was a New Zealand accountant. He served as chancellor of the University of Otago from 2004 to 2008. Biography Brown graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce in accountancy from the University of Otago. He went on to become a partner in the international accounting firm Deloitte, and was managing partner of the Dunedin office for 10 years. He was a member of the Council of the University of Otago for 16 years, and was chancellor for five years, from 2004 to 2008, having previously served as pro-chancellor. He subsequently chaired the advisory board of the School of Business at the University of Otago.
Go to Profile#1237
Mark H. Willes
#188224
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (83 years)
Mark Hinckley Willes is a business leader who was most recently the chief executive officer of Deseret Management Corporation from 2009 to 2012. Willes was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Joseph S. Willes and Ruth Hinckley. His mother was a sister of Gordon B. Hinckley, the 15th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . Willes graduated from West High School in Salt Lake City. He received a bachelor's degree and Ph.D. from Columbia University.
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Kevin Klose
#177961
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (84 years)
Kevin Klose is an American journalist, author, broadcast executive, and academic administrator, who served as president of National Public Radio for almost a decade, overseeing a major growth era for the service.
Go to Profile#1239
Leslie De Chernatony
#188844
Overall Influence
#1240
Kirill Ilinski
#187009
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Kirill Ilinski is a Russian born British businessman and scientist. He is the founder and Chief Investment Officer of Fusion Asset Management and the author of "Physics of Finance: Gauge Modelling in Non-Equilibrium Pricing" Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Fusion Asset Management.
Go to Profile#1241
Arnaud Montebourg
#175179
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (62 years)
Arnaud Montebourg is a French politician, lawyer and entrepreneur who served as the Minister of Industrial Renewal from 2012 to 2014, then as Minister of Economy, Industrial Renewal, and Digital Affairs, 31 March 2014 until his resignation on 25 August.
Go to Profile#1242
Albert Pugsley
#130127
Overall Influence
1910 - 2002 (92 years)
Albert Tonkin Pugsley was an Australian agricultural scientist and wheat breeder. Early life Pugsley was born in Mildura, Victoria and educated at Scotch College, followed by the University of Melbourne where he graduated in 1931 with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science degree. Pugsley later studied at the University of Adelaide, where he was awarded a Doctor of Science degree in 1954 for his research on disease resistance in plants.
Go to Profile#1243
Ross Robinson
#189045
Overall Influence
#1244
Ana Hatherly
#102731
Overall Influence
1929 - 2015 (86 years)
Ana Hatherly was a Portuguese academic, poet, visual artist, essayist, filmmaker, painter, and writer. She was considered one of the pioneers of the experimental poetry and experimental literature movement in Portugal.
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Henning Kagermann
#189245
Overall Influence
#1246
Rajagopal Echambadi
#189269
Overall Influence
#1247
Judith Estrin
#182373
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Judith "Judy" L. Estrin is an American entrepreneur, business executive, and philanthropist. She co-founded eight technology companies. Estrin worked with Vinton Cerf on the Transmission Control Protocol project at Stanford University in the 1970s. She was the chief technology officer of Cisco Systems from 1998 to 2000. Since 2007, Estrin has been the CEO of JLABS, LLC, a privately held company focused on furthering innovation in business, government, and nonprofit organizations.
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Ned Lamont
#182979
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Edward Miner Lamont Jr. is an American businessman and politician serving since January 2019 as the 89th governor of Connecticut. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a Greenwich selectman from 1987 to 1989 and was the party's nominee for the United States Senate in 2006, losing to incumbent Joe Lieberman.
Go to Profile#1249
Kenneth Mortimer
#188108
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (87 years)
#1250
Kate Jackson
#170629
Overall Influence
1986 - Present (38 years)
Kate Jackson is a British retired mixed martial artist, most notable for fighting for Bellator MMA, where she challenged for the promotion's flyweight championship, and on The Ultimate Fighter 23, losing to eventual TUF 23 winner Tatiana Suarez.
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