Tim Cook
CEO, Apple
Photograph by Joe Pugliese
There is no true preparation for replacing a legend, but that’s what Tim Cook had to do three-and-a-half years ago following the death of Steve Jobs. Cook has led Apple so strongly, including in some surprising directions, that he has earned the No. 1 spot onFortune’s list of the World’s Greatest Leaders. Apple’s stock has hit all-time highs, in Apple Pay and the Apple Watch the company has shown its continued appetite for innovation, and it is gradually becoming more open and outspoken, including on a variety of non-corporate social issues. By announcing that he is gay, Cook also has done something few would have predicted: become a global role model.
2
Mario Draghi
President, European Central Bank
Photograph by Emmanuel Dunand — AFP/Getty Images
Mario Draghi, as president of the European Central Bank, surely has one of the toughest and most significant jobs in the world. Growth and stability in the eurozone, and more broadly in the European Union, should be an anchor for the world economy. But its weaker economies have floundered for years, and Europe has long lacked the political leadership to address their problems. Draghi, drawing on long experience in both government and business, has moved to fill that void. Taking full advantage of the instruments available to the central bank and his personal powers of persuasion, he has carried out his own pledge to do “whatever it takes” to hold the eurozone together.
Draghi’s role requires him to balance widely divergent national views and circumstances. Ultimate success is dependent upon confidence in the skill, capacity, and integrity of a man able to reconcile the different positions. Draghi, born of Italy but a man of Europe, has provided that leadership.
Victory in the battle for growth and stability—and political reconciliation—within Europe has not yet arrived. However, there is little doubt that Draghi has provided a beacon of needed leadership. Given the weight of Europe in the world economy, we all have a stake in his work.
— Paul Volcker
Draghi’s role requires him to balance widely divergent national views and circumstances. Ultimate success is dependent upon confidence in the skill, capacity, and integrity of a man able to reconcile the different positions. Draghi, born of Italy but a man of Europe, has provided that leadership.
Victory in the battle for growth and stability—and political reconciliation—within Europe has not yet arrived. However, there is little doubt that Draghi has provided a beacon of needed leadership. Given the weight of Europe in the world economy, we all have a stake in his work.
— Paul Volcker
3
Xi Jinping
President, People's Republic of China
Photograph by Feng Li — Getty Images
There hasn’t been a stronger leader in China since the reformer Deng Xiaoping—or maybe the revolutionary Mao Zedong. Xi shares traits with both. He has consolidated power; fired, fined, or jailed a quarter of a million cadres in his massive corruption purge; and cracked down on dissidents. He’s also behind China’s robust nationalistic message directed at world powers. At the same time he has preached meaningful reforms—including, importantly, strengthening the rule of law. Much now depends on his ability to advance those reforms while managing the economy’s inevitably slowing growth and its transition from being investment-based to consumption-based. That’s a monumental job, of course. A stumble could spark insurrection and disaster, but so far Xi is holding things together. Veteran China watchers in the West consider him a true leader, albeit one whose record remains incomplete. That’s why many are calling this the most interesting time in China in decades.
4
Pope Francis
Pontiff, Catholic Church
Photograph by Alberto Pizzoli — AFP/Getty Images
Since becoming pope in 2013, Francis (the former Jorge Mario Bergoglio) has been shaking up the management of one of the world’s largest bureaucracies: the Roman Catholic Church. That earned him the top spot on Fortune’s list of World’s Greatest Leaders last year—but his vision, fortitude, and commitment to reform were so extraordinary in 2014 that we’re including him again this year. It is not just that he has led by example—by now it’s well known that the pope, who has long championed the virtues of charity and modesty, has forgone the traditional suite in the Apostolic Palace, opting instead to reside in a one-bedroom apartment in the Vatican guesthouse. Less known is how decisive he is in personnel choices, replacing the boards of the Vatican Bank and its main regulatory body with highly respected business-people from around the globe. And though there has been pushback from entrenched interests at the Vatican, this pontiff is not easily conned: He gets information on all important church personnel and organizations from a variety of sources and shuns toadies and cronies. Operating budgets are now pruned to ensure that as much money as possible can go to charity. This, after all, is a pope who lives his own lessons.
5
Narendra Modi
Prime Minister, India
Photograph by Kevin Frayer — Getty Images
Modi rode to victory in elections last year on a wave of economic dissatisfaction. But while many reformers before him have talked a good game, Modi has actually begun to deliver on his promises—making genuine progress in his efforts to make India more business-friendly and less regulated, addressing violence against women, improving sanitation, and patching up relations with other Asian countries and the U.S. There is, to be sure, a long way to go. Fully achieving any of his goals will require reforming India’s powerful, widely corrupt bureaucracy. But he has put the bureaucrats on notice while taking action where he can—for example, by substantially increasing allowable foreign investment in the insurance industry. And in greatly simplifying the procedure for getting a visa to visit India, he has symbolically lowered the status of bureaucrats and raised that of potential outside investors. Modi still faces such huge challenges as privatizing India’s vast portfolio of state-owned businesses and deregulating labor markets.
But simply by declaring those as goals, he has seized control of the national agenda and sent a message that it’s time for all of India—not just its infotech services sector—to join the 21st century. The IMF and other forecasters now believe India will be growing faster than China in a year or two.
But simply by declaring those as goals, he has seized control of the national agenda and sent a message that it’s time for all of India—not just its infotech services sector—to join the 21st century. The IMF and other forecasters now believe India will be growing faster than China in a year or two.
6
Taylor Swift
Pop Star, Big Machine Records
Photograph by Carlo Allegri — Reuters
Taylor Swift didn’t become the highest-paid woman in the music business by accident. Pop’s savviest star has crossed swords with Spotify, embraced corporate sponsorship, and moved to secure dozens of trademarks (including phrases like “This sick beat”)—plus she has proved shrewder at honing a brand in the social media age than virtually any other person or company. And she’s done it without resorting to dumbed-down salacious gimmickry. (Swift, ahem, is arguably the anti–Miley Cyrus.) With 1989, the top-selling album in 2014, Swift’s efforts to ensure she gets paid for her music could have a huge ripple effect on the way artists are compensated in an era of free streaming.
7
Joanne Liu
International President, Medecins Sans Frontieres
Photograph by Salvatore Di Nolfi — AP
Liu, a Canadian-born physician, has worked with MSF since 1996, when she took on her first field assignment: caring for Malian refugees in Mauritania. Since then she has taken part in more than 20 missions on four continents—helping victims of the Indonesian tsunami and Haitian earthquake, as well as refugees and survivors of sexual violence in Somalia, Congo, and Sudan’s Darfur region, to name just a few. But Liu’s job got even more demanding in October 2013, when she was named the group’s international president just two months before the first West African patients were diagnosed with Ebola, the start of what became the deadliest and most widespread outbreak of the horrific disease to date. Liu and MSF didn’t dither for a second. She helped lead the organization’s fast and aggressive response to the virus, establishing field hospitals in the middle of the hot zone and pressing African leaders and public health officials worldwide to step up their efforts. The pressure worked. At least for the time being, this contagion has been contained.
8
John Roberts Jr.
Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court
Photograph by Jonathan Ernst — Reuters
No one doubts it’s the Roberts Court now. At age 60, and already in his 10th year in the role, the Chief Justice of the United States commands universal respect, even from the far older members of the ferociously polarized panel. Administratively, he leads not only “the nine,” but also some 180 appellate judges, 680 district judges, 350 bankruptcy judges, 550 magistrate judges, and the 28-judge Judicial Conference. In the Supreme Court’s rightward journey, it is Roberts, one the capital’s few remaining statesmen, who is setting the pace on how fast—and the limit on how far. This term his historic votes (and behind-the-scenes influence) will very likely determine if Obamacare survives and same-sex marriage receives constitutional benediction.
9
Mary Barra
CEO, General Motors
Photograph by John F. Martin for General Motor
Immersed in GM’s ignition-switch megacrisis almost since day one as CEO, Barra has deftly juggled the demands of investors, regulators, customers, plaintiffs, and employees on one of the business world’s most visible stages. She’s a company lifer, but her insistence on greater openness nonetheless broke the long-standing GM pattern of downplaying responses to product defects—and she is making a genuine, if still far from complete, effort to transform the automaker’s sclerotic culture.
10
Joshua Wong
Activist, Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Movement
Photograph by Lam Yik Fei — Bloomberg via Getty Images
Slight, and with a bowl cut and black-framed eyeglasses, the 18-year-old Wong doesn’t look like Hollywood’s idea of a charismatic rebel leader. But Wong, a co-founder of the student-activist group Scholarism, was one of the most compelling figures in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy “Umbrella Revolution” last year. His nonviolent protest message and energetic idealism galvanized crowds that, over months, numbered in the hundreds of thousands.
11
Johnetta Elzie and DeRay McKesson
Prominent voices for nonviolent protest, Ferguson, Mo.
Photographs by Emily Kassie
After the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Mo., Mckesson left his school administrator job in Minneapolis to protest in St. Louis. He met Elzie at a medic training on how to respond to tear gas, and together they began to chronicle events in the shooting’s wake as they unfolded with breakneck speed. Their award-winning online newsletter, This Is the Movement, now has some 15,000 subscribers—and the two reach another 100,000 followers via Twitter. “My role here is just to amplify the message,” Mckesson tells Fortune. “We are two of many people.”
12
Jeremy Farrar
Director, Wellcome Trust
Courtesy of the Wellcome Library
In 2003, when bird flu reemerged in humans, studies at a key lab in Vietnam—run by a British clinician—gave the world deep insights into the virus. When that same physician, Jeremy Farrar, became head of the Wellcome Trust and its $26 billion endowment two years ago, infectious-disease research got a new global champion. Under Farrar, Wellcome has not only doubled down on Ebola research but also fast-tracked clinical trials of potential treatments.
13
James Comey
Director, FBI
Photograph by Cliff Owen — AP
Even as the national debate on police shootings of unarmed black men has simmered just below the boil, few in law enforcement have been willing to talk about it. But that’s just what Comey did in February, speaking bluntly about four “hard truths” of law enforcement and race. It could have been a disaster, but by openly addressing unconscious bias and other hot-button issues, the FBI boss earned praise from across the political spectrum and improved public esteem of his organization.
14
Ai-Jen Poo
Director, National Domestic Workers Alliance
Photograph by AP
As the leader of one of the most significant new forces in organized labor, Ai-jen Poo has become the foremost advocate for living wages and health care benefits for the often ignored and underpaid nannies, housekeepers, and other at-home caregivers all over the country. Since 2010 four states have passed a Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights—in large part because of this 2014 MacArthur “genius” fellow’s efforts.
15
Mark Carney
Governor, Bank of England
Photograph by Simon Dawson — Bloomberg via Getty Images
As governor of the Bank of England since mid-2013, Carney has displayed boldness and finesse—just as he did while central-bank chief in his native Canada during the financial crisis. Back then he was credited with keeping Canada’s economy healthy, even as other developed nations raced to the brink. Now, with Carney’s steady hand, the U.K.’s economy is revving up too. The IMF predicts it will grow far faster this year than any other major European economy.
16
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
President, Liberia
Photograph by Ahmed Jallanzo — EPA/Landov
When a bitter civil war tore Liberia apart over a decade ago, Sirleaf helped mend the country, a remarkable feat of leadership that earned her the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. Last summer, when another menace, the Ebola virus, wreaked havoc, Sirleaf was slower to act—a mistake she candidly acknowledged. But after that tepid initial response, she brought the full weight of her government to bear and helped bring the crisis to an end. To be sure, Liberia’s president, the first female head of state in Africa, has not done enough to tackle the country’s endemic corruption, but few think anyone but Sirleaf could have helped rescue the country the way she did—twice.
17
Howard Schultz
Chairman and CEO, Starbucks
Photograph by Stephen Brashear — Getty Images
Even if you thought Starbucks’ move to encourage conversations about race in its stores was a terrible idea, you have to admit it was gutsy. It’s also classic Schultz. He is known for embracing issues that most CEOs would rather not touch with a 10-foot pole, whether it’s gay marriage, gun control, or a gridlocked Washington. And with the stock returning about 30% over the past year (double the S&P 500), Schultz has proved that Big Business and social causes don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
18
Bill and Melinda Gates
Founders, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Photograph by Frederic Courbet — Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
It has been 15 years since the husband-and-wife team began their philanthropic mission to eradicate preventable diseases in developing nations. Since then their foundation has doled out nearly $33 billion in grants and made stunning progress toward its goals. New cases of malaria have decreased 25%, and India, after a Gates-backed vaccination campaign, said in 2014 that it was polio-free.
19
Pete Frates
Advocate, ALS "Ice Bucket Challenge"
Photograph by Rob Kim — Getty Images for Sports Illustrated
The former Boston College baseball player has lost almost all physical movement and his voice to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. But his persistence in telling the world about his battle with the neurodegenerative disease sparked the Ice Bucket Challenge—the most viral fundraising campaign in history—bringing in $115 million for the ALS Association to date. Videos of people dousing themselves with ice water, meanwhile, made the search for a cure a national cause.
20
Mike Duggan and Kevyn Orr
Mayor and Former Emergency Manager, Detroit
Kevyn Orr, left and Mike Duggan; Photograph by Carlos Osorio — AP
The nation’s largest-ever municipal bankruptcy could have been a disaster. It was anything but. Orr aggressively shrank the city’s obligations to bondholders and set the stage for a complete financial overhaul. In his first year in office, Duggan proved a driven and effective manager, installing over 20,000 new streetlights, shortening emergency response times, and balancing the city budget for the first time in over a decade.
21
Helena Morrissey
CEO, Newton Investment Management
Photograph by Simon Dawson — Bloomberg via Getty Images
While her day job is helming a London firm managing $55 billion in assets, Morrissey is also leading the 30% Club, a campaign to make public-company boards in the U.K. 30% female. By convincing (mostly male) chairmen that diverse boards produce superior shareholder returns, the charismatic mother of nine has made progress at home—FTSE 100 boards are 24% female, vs. 13% in 2010. She’s now bringing her quest to the U.S., where board diversity has further to go.
22
Beatrice Mtetwa
Lawyer, Human rights activist in Zimbabwe
Photograph by Jacquelyn Martin — AP
She has been called one of the bravest lawyers in Africa—and for good reason. Mtetwa, who was recognized by the U.S. State Department as one of 10 “international women of courage” last year and who was the subject of the 2013 documentary Rule of Law, has never wavered in her defense of human rights and basic freedoms in her native Zimbabwe. Despite beatings, arrests, and endless threats, she continues to fight for the rule of law.
23
Elon Musk
Co-Founder and CEO, Tesla Motors and SpaceX
Photograph by Robyn Beck — AFP/Getty Images
From electric vehicles to space travel, Musk has taken on some of the greatest technological challenges of our time. But what transforms him from mad inventor to visionary leader is his ability to convince the world of the viability of his projects, even ideas like a tube-based transit system called the Hyper-loop. His electric-car maker, Tesla Motors, produces a world-class automobile, but so far nothing for the masses—nor an annual profit. Does it matter? No. We’ll wait.
24
Tri Rismaharini
Mayor, Surabaya, Indonesia
Photograph by Robertus Pudyanto — Getty Images
Elected as Surabaya’s mayor in 2010, Rismaharini has transformed her city of 2.7 million people into a new kind of Indonesian metropolis, one that celebrates green space and environmental sustainability. The city, long known for pollution and congestion, now boasts 11 richly landscaped parks and other green spaces. In some cases even cemeteries have been expanded and redesigned to absorb more water and reduce flooding, an ever-present risk in Indonesia.
25
Mark Zuckerberg
Founder and CEO, Facebook
Photograph by Robert Galbraith — Reuters
“Everyone knows Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook when he was 19, but because of that extraordinary beginning, everyone tends to underrate the role he has gone on to play,” says Silicon Valley eminence Peter Thiel, who himself has had an outsize role in the tech revolution. “Keeping the company relentlessly focused on the long-term future, he is the opposite of a quarter-to-quarter Wall Street CEO, and that’s why he deserves to be recognized as a great leader.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
26
Yao Ming
Animal rights activist and former NBA star, NBA (Retired)
Photograph by Kristian Schmidt — WildAid
Yao Ming could have returned to China for a quiet retirement. Instead, the 7-foot 6-inch former NBA star has spoken out against various animal abuses—including his country’s illegal ivory trade (China accounts for about 70% of global demand) and the practice of hunting sharks for shark-fin soup. But the impact of his efforts has been far bigger than the headlines he generates. Following Yao’s lead, other famous Chinese are starting to talk openly about the country’s problems—resulting in a more public social debate.
27
Jeff Bezos
Founder and CEO, Amazon.com
Photograph by David Ryder — Getty Images
Bezos has built a $174 billion empire by continually churning out new products with mass consumer appeal, from e-reader tablets to streaming-only TV shows to, soon, goods delivered by drones. Not all his investments have paid off: Amazon’s much-hyped Fire Phone, which made its debut last summer, was a flop. Yet the visionary CEO not only created his diversified behemoth from scratch but turned e-commerce from a fanciful idea into a globe-changing practice.
28
Kailash Satyarthi
Founder, Bachpan Bachao Andolan
Photograph by Suzanne Plunkett — Reuters
Though overshadowed by last year’s other recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, Malala, Satyarthi has led the global fight against child labor for more than three decades. Founded in 1980, his Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save Childhood Movement) has protected the rights of some 83,000 children around the world. Child labor, he says, is as much an economic issue, perpetuating poverty and illiteracy, as it is about human rights. In any case, no one has done as much to prevent it as he has.
29
Lei Jun
Founder and CEO, Xiaomi
Photograph by Ng Han Guan — AP
Four years after building its first smartphone, Beijing-based Xiaomi is valued at $45 billion. How Xiaomi got to that point, though, says less about its products (which get only so-so reviews) than its founder. From the start, Lei rebuffed industry convention—selling online only, giving users a strong voice on software changes, and hawking phones for a third of an iPhone’s price. That, it seems, is how you get to be the world’s fifth-largest smartphone maker overnight.
30
Bayan Mahmoud Al-Zahran
Lawyer, Saudi Arabia
Kyle Bean for Fortune
In a country that bars women from driving, even the smallest advancement in women’s rights should be celebrated. So there’s no overstating the importance of al-Zahran’s accomplishments. In 2013 she became the first woman licensed to practice law in Saudi Arabia, and last year she opened the kingdom’s first-ever all-woman law firm. Though her firm will represent both men and women, one of its stated goals is to argue cases on behalf of Saudi women in court.
A verified photo of al-Zahran was not available.
A verified photo of al-Zahran was not available.
31
Lebron James
Forward, Cleveland Cavaliers
Photograph by Fernando Medina — NBAE/Getty Images
With two NBA titles, James didn’t need to return to Cleveland—a place without a championship, let alone hope of a quick one. But, he said, he wanted to bring a group together and help them “reach a place they didn’t know they could go.” The Cavs, atop their division as of mid-March, are reaching. Meantime James, newly elected VP of the NBA’s Players Association, will face a fresh leadership challenge as labor negotiations with the league get underway.
32
Mark Bertolini
CEO, Aetna
Photograph by Simon Dawson — Bloomberg via Getty Images
It was a bold move. In January, Bertolini told Aetna employees the company would boost its own minimum wage to $16 (as much as a 33% increase for some workers) in April and substantially upgrade health benefits for those at the bottom rungs of the company—something that would improve the lives of thousands. The CEO called it an “infrastructure investment in the quality of our employees,” saying it would not only help trim the $120 million that Aetna currently spends each year to rehire and retrain workers but also boost employee engagement with customers. Investors seem to understand the rationale. The insurer’s stock is up 22% since the Jan. 12 announcement, trouncing the S&P 500. And that may help explain why Wal-Mart, Target, and other big companies quickly followed suit.
33
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Finance Minister, Nigeria
Photograph by Eric Piermont — AFP/Getty Images
A magna cum laude Harvard grad who holds a Ph.D. from MIT, Okonjo-Iweala has helped usher in a GDP-trebling decade of Nigerian prosperity. “She is a fearless promoter of sound economic policies,” says Witney Schneidman, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs. No wonder Nigeria’s two-term finance minister—and first woman in the role— has been considered a top contender to run the World Bank one day.
34
Raj Panjabi
CEO, Last Mile Health
Courtesy of Last Mile Health
Panjabi spent the first nine years of his life in Liberia before fleeing that country’s civil war. In 2007 he went back—this time with a medical degree and a mission: to train villagers in remote areas to be health care workers. Seven years later, when Ebola struck, Panjabi’s Last Mile Health rapidly trained 1,300 Liberians—an army that helped keep the virus at bay in many parts of the country. Now he’s working with Liberia’s government to launch a national community health worker program.
35
Adm. William McRaven (Ret.)
Chancellor, University of Texas
Photograph by Frederic J. Brown — AFP/Getty Images
McRaven, a former Navy SEAL, earned renown after overseeing the 2011 Special Ops raid that killed Osama bin Laden. But his fame swelled last year when he gave one of the all-time great commencement addresses—a speech at his alma mater, the University of Texas. McRaven was named chancellor of the UT system in January, and he’s already helping repair its reputation, which had suffered after an admissions scandal and other controversies.
36
Carolyn Miles
President and CEO, Save the Children
Photograph by Soumen Nath
Since being named CEO of the nonprofit group in 2011, Miles has helped double the number of children the organization reaches, both domestically and abroad. “She is managing an enormous global enterprise under some of the worst conditions imaginable,” says Yale School of Management professor and leadership expert Tom Kolditz. “I suspect that her efforts contribute directly to saving the lives of more than a thousand children a day, maybe more.”
37
Frances Hesselbein
President and CEO, Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute
Courtesy of Hesselbein
Hesselbein rose to fame as CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA, which she transformed in the 1960s and 1970s—an achievement for which she got the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In her late 90s, she continues to train a new generation of leaders through her eponymous institute. It’s a lucky thing. After all, who else can reframe the work of the late Peter Drucker for an audience of millennials? (Yes, that’s her latest book.)
38
Jamie Dimon
Chairman and CEO, JPMorgan Chase
Photograph by Diane Bondareff — Invision for JP Morgan Chase/AP
Dimon is arguably the first person to make the big-bank profit model work, and he hasn’t wavered in his belief in that model even as regulators, academics, and some Wall Street analysts have pressured him to scale back. It’s easy to forget that J.P. Morgan Chase was an also-ran before Dimon showed up (with the 2004 merger between JPM and Dimon’s Bank One). Now it’s the most important bank in the world. Love or hate the ways of Wall Street, it’s hard not to admire its rough-hewn rajah.
39
Anthony Fauci
Director, NIAID (NIH)
Photograph by Alex Wong — Getty Images
When the Ebola crisis hit last year, the government (and the media) turned once again to Anthony Fauci, who has become America’s doctor. Over the past 31 years, Fauci, who has made seminal contributions to our understanding of HIV, has headed the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and put its nearly $4.5 billion annual budget to good use, helping find ways to better treat and prevent infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases. He has pioneered the development of therapies that extend the lives of those living with HIV/AIDS and pushed for a vaccine to prevent the infection—work that has earned him 38 honorary doctoral degrees from universities around the world, the National Medal of Science, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
40
Patrick Awuah
Founder and President, Ashesi University College
Photograph by Erik Hersman
He made millions at Microsoft and then decided to make a difference back home in Ghana. Awuah founded a state-of-the-art, tech-focused university in this sub-Saharan nation—a region where just 5% of college-age kids go to school. Many students at Ashesi University, founded in 2002, are the first in their families—or villages, for that matter—to attend college. And notably, of the 168 students in the incoming class, 51% are women.
41
Mitch Daniels
President, Purdue University
Photograph by Michael Bonfigli — Christian Science Monitor/Getty Images
The former White House budget director and Indiana governor is demonstrating that his green-eyeshade approach works just as well in academia. As president of Purdue University, he’s frozen tuition, cut costs by zeroing out administrative waste, and negotiated a deal with Amazon to save students up to 30% on textbooks. No wonder Republican Pooh-Bahs are eager to lure him back to public life. For now, though, he has forsworn a return to politics.
42
Richard Pazdur
Director, FDA's Office of Hematology and Oncology Products
Courtesy of the FDA
Rarely does one hear anybody celebrate the FDA. But lately the agency’s gatekeeper for cancer drugs is getting nearly universal praise for his effort to speed promising medications to market. In 2014 the FDA approved the greatest number of novel drugs in almost 20 years. Under Pazdur’s leadership, says Len Lichtenfeld of the American Cancer Society, “the FDA has been more responsive to the needs of cancer patients.”
43
Courtney Banghart
Head Coach, Princeton Tigers Women's Basketball Team
Photograph by Beverly Schaefer
Taking charge of a mediocre team that had never made it to the NCAA tournament, Banghart coached the Tigers to five Ivy League championships. This season the Tigers went 31–0 before losing to No. 4–seeded Maryland in the NCAA tourney. But Banghart, who has a master’s degree in leadership development, expects more of her players than great play: They must adhere to Princeton’s tough academic standards too.
44
Travis Kalanick
CEO, Uber
Photograph by Cody Pickens
Kalanick holds the rare distinction of being one of the country’s most successful CEOs and also one of its most polarizing. In the past year the 38-year-old and his ubiquitous ride-sharing company faced multiple public-relations firestorms over privacy concerns involving customer data, the safety of passengers, and insensitive comments reportedly made by Uber executives (including Kalanick). But while he was losing the public-relations battles, he was leading—and winning—a broader business war with taxi companies, regulators, and competitors. At the beginning of 2014, Uber was in 60 cities; now it’s in more than 250. Investors peg its value at a mind-boggling $41.2 billion. Even more remarkable may be how Uber’s deceptively simple app has changed the transportation landscape. Uber cars in New York City now outnumber the iconic yellow cabs. New York won’t be the last place that happens.
45
Jimmy Fallon
Host, The Tonight Show
Photograph by James White — NBC/NBCU Photo Bank
In a time slot dominated by barbed-tongued critics, Fallon has led latenight TV—and his nearly 4 million nightly viewers, “coveted younger demo,” and 6.7 million YouTube followers—to an unapologetic joy, filled with hip-hop dance-offs, lip-sync battles, and Everyman effervescence. It’s an improbable cultural feat: After just a year on the job—and surrounded by Twitter wars, celebrity smackdowns, and caustic commentary—Fallon is making “nice” seem pretty cool.
46
Daniel Barenboim
General Music Director, Berlin State Opera
Photograph by John MacDougall — AFP/Getty Images
The Argentina-born pianist and conductor, who holds both Israeli and Palestinian citizenship, has long used his prominence to try to nurture peace in the Middle East, founding with the late scholar Edward Said 16 years ago the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra to bring together young Israeli and Arab musicians. “You can’t make peace with an orchestra,” he once told The Guardian. But you can “create the conditions for understanding.”
47
Adam Silver
Commissioner, NBA
Photograph by Steven Freeman — NBAE/Getty Images
Just three months into his term, Adam Silver won accolades for defusing a crisis by banning L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling (till then one of Silver’s employers) from the NBA for his racist comments. The new commish is energetic and creative. He’s talking about shortening the preseason to alleviate the grueling demands on players and tweaking the playoff structure to improve competitiveness. He has even endorsed a form of legalized betting, which could pay off for the league.
48
Richard Liu
Founder and CEO, JD.com
Photograph by Jason Lee — Reuters
Richard Liu runs his business big. His e-commerce giant (and Alibaba rival) JD.com has a delivery team of more than 20,000 people so as to guarantee same-day service in 130 districts and counties in China. But Liu, who may well be a billionaire after the company’s IPO last year, leads with a mighty small ego. He has few of the trappings of a celebrity CEO and still spends a day every year as a JD.com deliveryman. Yeah, that’s him—on the tricycle scooter.
49
John Mackey
Co-CEO, Co-Founder, Whole Foods Market
Photograph by Jay Janner — AP
When Mackey co-founded the precursor to Whole Foods in 1978, natural and organic products were for hippies. Now the Austin-based retailer is not only tapping into consumers’ shifting habits but wielding powerful influence in a food movement that has changed the way people eat and affected everything from farming to labeling. Mackey is also leading another movement—this one called “conscious capitalism”—that urges a more ethical way of doing business.
50
Akira Miyawaki
Director, Japanese Center for International Studies in Ecology
Photograph by Takashi Osato
Miyawaki, a professor emeritus at Yokohama National University, has spent his life promoting the benefits of native forests—more readily restored when land is damaged and more effective at fighting climate change than forests dominated by imported species. Now 87, he has planted 40 million trees in 15 countries, including new woodlands in his native Japan. The trees, it seems, are much better shields against a tsunami than concrete barriers.
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