The Most Influential People in History
Find the most important people in 24 academic disciplines from 4000 BCE to today
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 proprietary AI program, we have ranked everyone in Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef based on the number of citations, publications, and academically relevant web presence.
Students and researchers now have the easiest and fastest way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you ever wanted to find famous medieval biologists, or influential engineers during the industrial revolution, now you can!
We’ve also put together our own custom rankings of people by discipline. And speaking of influential people, don’t forget to check out the interviews we do with the influential people of today!
Use the power of AI for your research! Simply select the discipline (and optional subdiscipline) most relevant to your research, and the time periods of interest, and get enlightening results.
Methodology: How and Why We Rank by Influence …Search Influential People
List of the most influential people in Business, for the years 2000 – 2022
Bernie Madoff
#1913
Overall Influence
1938 - 2021 (83 years)
Bernard Lawrence Madoff was an American fraudster and financier who ran the largest Ponzi scheme in history, worth about $64.8 billion. He was at one time chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange. He advanced the proliferation of electronic trading platforms and the concept of payment for order flow, which has been described as a "legal kickback".
Go to ProfileLouis Walsh
#2848
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (71 years)
Michael Louis Vincent Walsh is an Irish music manager and television personality. He has managed Johnny Logan, Boyzone, Jedward and Westlife, four of Ireland's most successful pop acts in the 1990s and 2000s. He later became a talent judge on television shows such as Popstars , You're a Star , The X Factor , and Ireland's Got Talent .
Go to ProfileLarry Fink
#5045
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (71 years)
Laurence Douglas Fink is an American billionaire businessman. He is the chairman and CEO of BlackRock, an American multinational investment management corporation. BlackRock is the largest money-management firm in the world with more than trillion in assets under management, giving the firm enormous power over the global financial system. In April 2022, Fink's net worth was estimated at billion according to Forbes Magazine. He sits on the boards of the Council on Foreign Relations and World Economic Forum.
Go to ProfileJohn Paulson
#5423
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (68 years)
John Alfred Paulson is an American billionaire hedge fund manager. He leads Paulson & Co., a New York-based investment management firm he founded in 1994. He has been called "one of the most prominent names in high finance" and "a man who made one of the biggest fortunes in Wall Street history."
Go to ProfileSanford I. Weill
#4360
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (90 years)
Sanford I. "Sandy" Weill is an American banker, financier and philanthropist. He is a former chief executive and chairman of Citigroup. He served in those positions from 1998 until October 1, 2003, and April 18, 2006, respectively.
Go to ProfileMichael Burry
#9053
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (52 years)
Michael James Burry is an American investor, hedge fund manager, and physician. He founded the hedge fund Scion Capital, which he ran from 2000 until 2008 before closing it to focus on his personal investments. He is best known for being amongst the first investors to predict and profit from the subprime mortgage crisis that occurred between 2007 and 2010.
Go to ProfileIrene Rosenfeld
#10888
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (70 years)
Irene Blecker Rosenfeld is an American businesswoman who was the chairman and chief executive officer of Mondelēz International. Rosenfeld's career began at Dancer Fitzgerald Sample, a New York City advertising agency. She later joined General Foods consumer research, and then led Frito-Lay as CEO and chairwoman.
Go to ProfileRod Smallwood
#5198
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (73 years)
Roderick Charles Smallwood is an English music manager, best known as the co-manager of the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden. With his business partner, Andy Taylor, whom he met while studying at Trinity College, Cambridge, he founded the Sanctuary Records Group in 1979, which became the largest independent record label in the UK and the largest independent music management company in the world until its closure in 2007. Prior to managing Iron Maiden, Smallwood managed Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel.
Go to ProfileJohn Meriwether
#9127
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (76 years)
John William Meriwether is an American hedge fund executive. Education Meriwether earned an undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and an MBA degree from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Go to ProfileEli Broad
#3706
Overall Influence
1933 - 2021 (88 years)
Eli Broad was an American businessman and philanthropist. In June 2019, Forbes ranked him as the 233rd-wealthiest person in the world and the 78th-wealthiest in the United States, with an estimated net worth of $6.7 billion. He was known for his philanthropic commitment to public K–12 education, scientific and medical research, and the visual and performing arts.
Go to ProfileDaniel Och
#19800
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (62 years)
Daniel Och is an American billionaire hedge fund manager, and philanthropist. He is the founder, chairman and former CEO of Och-Ziff Capital Management, a global hedge fund and alternative asset management firm. According to Forbes he has a net worth of US$3.6 billion, as of August 2021.
Go to ProfileAnton Siluanov
#9102
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (60 years)
Anton Germanovich Siluanov is a Russian politician and economist serving as Minister of Finance since 2011. He served as First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia from 2018 to 2020. In 2011, he was appointed Minister of Finance by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin substituting in this position Alexei Kudrin, who was forced out and dismissed by president Dmitry Medvedev after publicly criticizing the additional defense spending of 2.1 trillion rubles through 2014.
Go to ProfileLouis Bacon
#14462
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (67 years)
Louis Moore Bacon is an American investor, hedge fund manager, and philanthropist. He is the founder and chief executive of Moore Capital Management. Forbes Magazine estimates his net worth to be US$1.81 billion, making him the 374th richest person on the Forbes 400 as of February 2017.
Go to ProfileMichael Steinhardt
#6536
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (83 years)
Michael H. Steinhardt is an American billionaire hedge fund manager and philanthropist. In 1967, he founded a hedge fund, Steinhardt Partners, that averaged an annualized return for its clients of 24.5% from 1967 to 1995. His fund lost 1/3 of its value in the 1994 bond market crisis. In 1995, after finishing up 25%, he closed his fund stating, "I thought there must be something more virtuous, more ennobling to do with one's life than make rich people richer," before returning to work in 2004 to head WisdomTree Investments, a fund with nearly US$64 billion in assets under management.
Go to ProfileRolf Buch
#22158
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (58 years)
Rolf Eberhard Buch is a German business executive. In 2013, he was appointed CEO of the real estate company Deutsche Annington, which, following the takeover of GAGFAH in the year 2015, was renamed Vonovia. Previously, Buch held an executive position at Arvato.
Go to ProfileMartin Lindstrom
#35732
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (53 years)
Martin Lindstrom is a Danish author and Time magazine Influential 100 Honoree. He has written eight books including Small Data: The Tiny Clues that Uncover Huge Trends, Buyology - Truth and Lies About Why We Buy, Brandwashed - Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy, his first title written for consumers, for which Lindstrom conducted a $3 million word-of-mouth marketing experiment, and 2021 released The Ministry of Common Sense. Brandwashed was inspired by the 2009 film, The Joneses – to study the effects of social influence on purchasing decisions.
Go to ProfileTracey Emin
#3280
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (60 years)
Tracey Karima Emin, CBE, RA is a British artist known for her autobiographical and confessional artwork. Emin produces work in a variety of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, photography, neon text and sewn appliqué. Once the "enfant terrible" of the Young British Artists in the 1980s, Tracey Emin is now a Royal Academician.
Go to ProfileAndrey Kostin
#17807
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (67 years)
Andrey Leonidovich Kostin is a Russian banker who is chairman of the VTB Management board since June 10, 2002. Education and career In 1973, Kostin began studies at Moscow State University, graduating in 1979 with a degree in political economy. He subsequently worked at the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From that year, until 1982 he was an employee of the USSR Consulate General in Sydney, Australia. From 1982 to 1985, he was Secretary of the European Department of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1985, he became an employee of the USSR Embassy in Great Britain working on economic issues with the KGB spy Alexander Lebedev, where he remained until 1990.
Go to ProfileChristoph Mueller
#27027
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (62 years)
Christoph R. Mueller is a German businessman. From 2016 to 2019, he was chief digital and innovation officer of Emirates Group. He is the former chief executive officer of Malaysia Airlines. With over 25 years' experience as a turnaround specialist in the aviation, logistic and tourism industry, Mueller has been widely credited with leading the financial recovery of Aer Lingus.
Go to ProfileWilliam Hopkins Holyland
#36649
Overall Influence
1807 - Present (216 years)
William Hopkins Holyland was an English accountant. He is best known for having co-founded, with Samuel Lowell Price and Edwin Waterhouse, the accountancy practice of Price Waterhouse that now forms part of PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Go to ProfileYuji Ijiri
#17871
Overall Influence
1935 - 2017 (82 years)
Yuji Ijiri was a Japanese economist, accounting researcher and educator. He was the Robert M. Trueblood University Professor of Accounting and Economics at Carnegie Mellon University until his retirement on June 30, 2011.
Go to ProfileRuth Porat
#21537
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (66 years)
Ruth Porat is a British-American business executive serving as Chief Financial Officer of Alphabet and its subsidiary Google since 2015. In 2020, Porat was listed as the 16th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes, and seventh on Fortunes Most Powerful Women list in 2020.
Go to ProfileStefano Domenicali
#27211
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (58 years)
Stefano Domenicali is an Italian manager and the current CEO of Formula One Group, replacing Chase Carey. He was the CEO of Italian sports car manufacturer Lamborghini from 2016 to 2020. He was the team principal of the Scuderia Ferrari Formula One team. Under his leadership Ferrari won their last Formula One World Championship to date.
Go to ProfileNathaniel Philip Rothschild
#19136
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (52 years)
Nathaniel Philip Victor James Rothschild is a British-born financier who settled in Switzerland, and a member of the Rothschild family. He is the chairman of Volex plc, a UK-listed manufacturer. He has a wide range of international business interests.
Go to ProfileMarijn Dekkers
#19649
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (66 years)
Marijn Emmanuel Dekkers is a Dutch-American former pharmaceutical businessman. He was CEO of Bayer AG from 2010 to 2016. He served as CEO of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. from 2002 to 2009. He served as Chairman of Unilever from 2016 to 2019. He is also Founder and Chairman of Novalis LifeSciences LLC, an investment and advisory firm for the Life Science industry.
Go to ProfileCarsten Kengeter
#40787
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (56 years)
Carsten Kengeter is the former CEO of Deutsche Börse. He was the Chief Executive Officer and Head of the Management Board of Deutsche Börse AG from June 1, 2015 to Jan 1, 2018. Biography Early life and education Kengeter was born March 31, 1967, in Heilbronn, West Germany, the only child of Christel and Rainer Kengeter. He grew up in Neckarwestheim and completed his primary and secondary education in this region as well as his military service. His father died in the Interflug airplane accident at Leipzig airport in 1975 and his mother still lives near Heilbronn today.
Go to ProfileRobin Saunders
#50253
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (61 years)
Robin Saunders is an American financier, and the founder and managing partner of Clearbrook Capital Partners LLP, a London-based private equity firm which specialises in property, asset management, specialty finance and infrastructure finance.
Go to ProfileJohn Leahy
#43676
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (73 years)
John Leahy is an American businessman. He is a former chief operating officer–Customers at Airbus , as well as the company's chief commercial officer between August 1994 and 2017, and a former member of the Airbus main board of management. Well known as one of the commercial aviation industry's most prolific aircraft salesmen, he made a significant contribution to the increase in Airbus's market share, from 18% in 1993 to 57% a decade later. He is responsible for over $1 trillion in sales. Airbus SAS was a government-owned company between 1993 and 2003.
Go to ProfileJennifer Morgan
#39167
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (52 years)
Jennifer Morgan is an American technology executive. She is the former Co-Chief Executive Officer at SAP SE. Morgan became the first American woman ever appointed to the SAP Executive Board in 2017. Morgan is the first female Chief Executive of SAP, and she is the first female CEO of a company on the DAX index.
Go to ProfileGregory J. Hayes
#31887
Overall Influence
Gregory J. Hayes is an American businessman. He was the chairman and CEO of United Technologies from September 2016 to April 2020, and is now the CEO of Raytheon Technologies. Early life and education Hayes grew up in Williamsville, New York, and was a 1978 graduate of Williamsville South High School. Hayes played football at Cornell University, while studying pre-law for a year, then transferred to the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University, where he earned a Bachelor of Economics degree, in 1982. He later became a CPA.
Go to ProfileRon Popeil
#13459
Overall Influence
1935 - 2021 (86 years)
Ronald Martin Popeil , was an American inventor and marketing personality, and founder of the direct response marketing company Ronco. He made appearances in infomercials for the Showtime Rotisserie and coined the phrase "Set it, and forget it!" as well as popularizing the phrase, "But wait, there's more!" on television as early as the mid-1950s.
Go to ProfilePeter Schwarzenbauer
#38667
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (64 years)
Peter Schwarzenbauer is a German manager and member of the Board of BMW AG. He is responsible for the MINI, BMW Motorrad, Rolls-Royce and Aftersales BMW Group. Early life and education Schwarzenbauer spent his school years in Munich and Brazil, where he graduated from high school in Nova Friburgo. From 1980 to 1984, he studied business administration with a focus on marketing at the University of Applied Sciences in Munich and completed his studies with a degree in business administration .
Go to ProfileEugene Morse
#64902
Overall Influence
Eugene Morse is an American internal auditor and whistleblower who uncovered massive accounting fraud at WorldCom in 2002. Denise Cote, the United States District Judge who presided over the litigation related to the pre-petition Worldcom fraud officially found:
Go to ProfileJohn Hammergren
#55271
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (64 years)
John H. Hammergren is an American businessman. He is best known for his role as Chairman and CEO of McKesson Corporation since 1999. On November 1, 2018 Hammergren announced his plan to retire. On April 1, 2019, he officially retired from McKesson. He was succeeded by Brian Tyler.
Go to ProfileOrit Gadiesh
#22970
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (72 years)
Orit Gadiesh is an Israeli-American corporate strategist and chairperson of management consulting firm Bain & Company. Biography Gadiesh was born in Haifa, Israel, in 1951, the daughter of a Berlin-born Israel Defense Forces colonel and his Ukrainian-born wife. After completing her compulsory service in the IDF, Gadiesh studied at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, graduating in 1975 with a bachelor's degree in psychology. Gadiesh graduated from Harvard Business School in 1977 in the top 5 percent of her class and was awarded the Brown prize for the most outstanding marketing student.
Go to ProfileMichael Suess
#39893
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (60 years)
Michael Suess is a German manager. He currently serves as Executive Chairman of OC Oerlikon, a global technology Group listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange, and as First Deputy Chairman of the supervisory board of the Austrian electricity company, Verbund AG. From 2015 to 2016, he held the position as CEO of the GMH Group.
Go to ProfileCarsten Spohr
#23587
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (57 years)
Carsten Spohr is a German airline executive. Since May 2014 he has been the chairman and chief executive officer of Lufthansa. Education After graduating with a degree in industrial engineering from the University of Karlsruhe , Spohr obtained a commercial pilot's license at Lufthansa Flight Training in Bremen and the Airline Training Center Arizona. Spohr continues to maintain this license until the present day. His license allows him to fly the Airbus A320.
Go to ProfileFrancesco Caio
#27220
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (66 years)
Francesco Caio is the Chief Executive Officer of Saipem since May 2021. He also serves on the Board of Directors of BNL - BNP as non executive director and Chairman of the remuneration Committee. Personal life Francesco Caio was born in Naples on August 23, 1957. He is married with two children.
Go to ProfileRich Ross
#38733
Overall Influence
Rich Ross is the former Group President of Discovery Channel and Science Channel. Earlier in his tenure at Discovery he also oversaw Animal Planet and Velocity . Previously he was the Chief Executive Officer of Shine America, responsible for commercial strategy of the Shine Group in the United States. He was also the president of entertainment at Disney Channel, and chairman of Walt Disney Studios. When Ross was named Chairman of Walt Disney Studios in 2009, he became the first openly gay studio chief.
Go to ProfileJohn Egan
#24356
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (84 years)
Sir John Leopold Egan is a British industrialist, associated with businesses in the automotive, airports, construction and water industries. He was chief executive and chairman of Jaguar Cars from 1980 to 1990 and chairman of Jaguar plc from 1985 to 1990, and then served as chief executive of BAA from 1990 to 1999. He is also notable for chairing the construction industry task force that produced the 1998 Egan Report and the follow-up report, Accelerating Change, in 2002. During 2004, undertook the Egan Review of Skills for Sustainable Communities for the Blair Government. In 2004, after co...
Go to ProfileMark Wiseman
#59461
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (53 years)
Mark Wiseman is a global investment manager and business executive. He is currently the chair of the Alberta Investment Management Corporation. He was a Senior Managing Director at BlackRock, Global Head of Active Equities, Chairman of its alternatives business, and Chairman of BlackRock's Global Investment Committee. He also served on BlackRock's Global Executive Committee. Prior to joining BlackRock in 2016, Wiseman was President and CEO of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board .
Go to ProfileS. P. Kothari
#20618
Overall Influence
Professor S. P. Kothari is an Indian-American academic and the Gordon Y. Billard Professor of Accounting and Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management and a Padma Shree awardee. His field of research is strategic and policy issues, securities regulation, auditing, and corporate governance.
Go to ProfileCharles Thomas Horngren
#27853
Overall Influence
1926 - 2011 (85 years)
Charles Thomas Horngren was an American accounting scholar and professor of accounting at Stanford University, known for his work in "pioneering modern-day management accounting." Biography Born in Milwaukee, Horngren joined the U.S. Army after high school graduation in 1946. Back in Milwaukee, he obtained his BA in accounting at the Marquette University in 1949. In 1952 he obtained his MBA from Harvard Business School, and in 1955 his PhD from University of Chicago.
Go to ProfileJonah Berger
#51278
Overall Influence
Jonah Berger is a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, an internationally bestselling author, and an expert on change, word of mouth, viral marketing, social influence, and how products, ideas, and behaviors catch on. He has published over 50 articles in academic journals, and has written for The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review. Over a million copies of his books Contagious: Why Things Catch On, Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior, and The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone's Mind are in print in over 35 countrie...
Go to ProfileWillibald Cernko
#72466
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (67 years)
Willibald Cernko is an Austrian bank manager and has served as a member of the management board of the Erste Group Bank AG, responsible for risk management , since 1 January 2017. Early years and career Willibald Cernko grew up with four siblings in Rothenthurm in Styria, Austria. He attended a business academy and afterwards studied at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, which he left before completing his degree.
Go to ProfileGary Winnick
#24768
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (75 years)
Gary Winnick is an American financier best known for founding and being Chairman of Global Crossing between 1997 and 2002, when it declared bankruptcy. As of 2015, he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Winnick & Company, a Los Angeles-based private investment firm founded in 1985. In 1999, Winnick was listed by the Los Angeles Business Journal as the wealthiest Angeleno with a net worth of more than $6 billion; as of 2002 his net worth was listed at $900 million. In 2021, Winnick was named one of the LA500 by the journal, celebrating the city's most influential leaders.
Go to ProfileWalter Kielholz
#48352
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (72 years)
Walter Bruno Kielholz was chairman of the Board of Directors and former CEO of Swiss Re. Kielholz completed a degree in business administration at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, in 1976. From 1997 to 2002 he was CEO of Swiss Re; He was Swiss Re's Chairman from 2009 to 2021.
Go to ProfileTsunekazu Ishihara
#42772
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (66 years)
Tsunekazu Ishihara is a Japanese video game designer, director, producer and businessman who is the president of The Pokémon Company. Prior to working with the Pokémon series, Ishihara was part of Ape Inc. and worked on titles such as EarthBound, and then years later he founded Creatures Inc.
Go to ProfileDon Lapre
#73506
Overall Influence
1964 - 2011 (47 years)
Donald D. Lapre was an American multi-level marketing and infomercial salesman. His work involved product packages such as "The Greatest Vitamin in the World" and "Making Money Secrets". Lapre was criticized as selling questionable business plans that often did not work for his clients. In June 2011, Lapre was charged with 41 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, and promotional money laundering related to his Internet businesses. He was arrested on June 24, 2011, for failing to appear in court to face these charges.
Go to ProfileDavid Darst
#109778
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (76 years)
David Martin Darst, CFA, is an American financier, educator, author, and triathlete. For 17 years, he was a Managing Director and Chief Investment Strategist of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, where he served as Vice Chairman of the Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Global Investment Committee. He was the founding President of the Morgan Stanley Investment Group, and the founding Chairman of the Morgan Stanley Asset Allocation Committee. Since 2014, he has served as an independent Senior Advisor to and a member of the Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Global Investment Committee.
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