On a yearly basis, FORBES releases a list of who is who as it ranks the most powerful people. The magazine has done the same and released this list. All the way from Russia’s pugnacious president to Charles Koch (a billionaire political donor), only 74 people were able to pass through the stringent qualification requirements.
In this year’s list, top 10 most powerful CEOs helm from America and the combined net worth of the businesses under their leadership rises to market cap of $3 trillion.
On top of the list is Alphabet CEO Larry Page, who heads the recently created Google parent worth over $500 billion. Alphabet’s name is at the heart of almost everything be it artificial intelligence
or healthcare. But to show how Page is dedicated with the role he plays, he uses his own wealth to finance ambitious projects such as flying car startups.
Coming second in that order is Elon Musk, a South African billionaire determined to cause transformation on earth
and space using transportation. He is the head of Tesla, a Wall Street giant that has created innovative electric cars as well as solar products. He is also the man responsible for SpaceX that designs “advanced rockets and spacecraft.”
Rex Tillerson follows keenly, being featured as the noisiest CEO in 2016. He is the chief of Exxon Mobil and has recently been nominated into US President-elect’s cabinet as the Secretary of State. However, many against him have accused him for his ties with Russia and failure to have diplomatic experience.
Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, would have surprised many had he failed to be on the list and indeed he took the fourth position. He is the fourth richest person in the world and also ranks as the second richest American, effectively replacing Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffet who has held on to the position for more than a decade. But at the time of preparing the list, Buffet had already knocked out Bezos yet again due to additional $8 billion that Trump’s election added to his net worth.
Numerous big names did not penetrate through this top 10 list. These include Uber’s CEO, Travis Kalanick, who is now in charge of a $68 billion startup that is revolutionizing not only people but everything that can move. General Motors chief Mary Barra, also missed out. She has led her company to a 20% stock surge since the start of November. Then there is Ma Huateng, the head and owner of WeChat that now boast of 800 million users. This is a Chinese mobile texting app.
These three executives are among the 18 who many would have expected on the list but as it is always the case – a new list will be out in 2017. Who knows, they may just be on it.