Nigeria’s industrial mogul and President of the Dangote Group of Companies, Aliko Dankote has been listed among the list of World’s Most powerful individuals.
The list has the Russian President Vladimir Putin climbing one spot ahead of US President Barack Obama to emerged the World’s Most Powerful, the title which Obama won in 2012.
Putin has solidified his control over Russia while Obama’s lame duck period has seemingly set in earlier than usual for a two-term president — latest example: the government shutdown mess. Anyone watching this year’s chess match over Syria and NSA leaks has a clear idea of the shifting individual power dynamics.
The Most Powerful People in the World list is an annual snapshot of the heads of state, financiers, philanthropists and entrepreneurs who truly rule the world. It represents the collective wisdom of top FORBES editors, who consider hundreds of nominees before ranking the planet’s top 72 power-brokers – one for every 100 million people on Earth — based on their scope of influence and their financial resources relative to their peers.
This year’s list features 17 heads of state who run nations with a combined GDP of some $48 trillion — including the three most powerful people, Putin, Obama and Xi Jinping, the general secretary of the Communist Party of China.
The 27 CEOs and chairs control over $3 trillion in annual revenues, and 12 are entrepreneurs, including new billionaires on the list, Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote (No. 64), founder of Dangote Group, and Oracle’s Larry Ellison (No. 58).
This year’s class has 28 billionaires valued in excess of $564 billion.
Here, a quick peek at the Most Powerful People in the World 2013:
Newcomers: Among the 13 newcomers are Pope Francis ranked fourth, Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-Hee, ranked 41st, Volkswagen’s Martin Winterkorn in 49th position, South Korean President Park Geun-hye ranked 52, IBM CEO Virginia Rometty; 56 and Janet Yellen in the 72nd position.
Rosneft CEO and Putin confidant Igor Sechin (No. 60) and Jill Abramson (No. 68), the executive editor of the New York Times, make a return appearance after dropping of the list in years past.
This is the first year that Putin carries the crown. Obama has been on the top of the list for every year with the exception of 2010, when Hu Jintao, the former political and military leader of China, was No. 1.
This year, there are nine women on the list, representing 12 per cent of the world’s most powerful — in stark contrast to being 50 per cent of the world’s population.
Both 2011 and 2012 featured six women leaders, and the inaugural list from 2009 included only three— or just 4.4 per cent.
Recently elected Park of South Korea joins the other female heads of state, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel is ranked No.5, Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff (No. 20)and de facto head of India Sonia Gandhi (No. 21).
Two of the world’s most important Non Governmental Organisations NGO’s are run by women: Christine Lagarde, IMF President is ranked 35 and Margaret Chan of the World Health Organization is ranked 59.
Wealthy billionaires said to worth a cumulative $564 billion like Warren Buffett (No. 13), Michael Bloomberg (No. 29), Li Ka-shing (No. 30), Charles and David Koch (No. 31), and Mohammed Ibrahim (No. 71) were also singled out for their exceptional philantropic disposition.
There are 12 entrepreneurs in all with Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin leading the pack in No. 17, followed by Mark Zuckerberg in No. 24, Elon Musk in 47); Ellison and Reid Hoffman (No. 65).
Global entrepreneurial spirit spans from Japan’s Masayoshi Son (No. 45) and China’s Robin Li (No. 61) to Africa’s Dangote and Ibrahim.