I wasn’t too surprised to see that the president of the United States ranked as the most powerful person on the planet.
After that however, I was totally surprised by who came in second. This seems to be the time of the year everyone turns out lists of stuff.
The following list is the Ultimate List (or Mother of all lists), when you think about it:
“What do the president of the United States, the pope and the founder of Facebook all have in common? They’re all featured on Forbes’ 2012 ranking of the World’s Most Powerful People – an annual look at the heads of state, financiers, philanthropists and entrepreneurs who truly run the world.
U.S. President Barack Obama emerged, unanimously, as the world’s most powerful person, for the second year running. Obama was the decisive winner of the 2012 U.S. presidential election, and now he gets four more years to push his agenda. The president faces major challenges, including an unresolved budget crisis, stubbornly high unemployment and renewed unrest in the Middle East. But Obama remains the unquestioned commander in chief of the world’s greatest military and head of its sole economic and cultural superpower.
The second most powerful person in the world also happens to be the most powerful woman: Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, jumps up from #4 last year to take the runner-up spot on the list. Merkel is the backbone of the 27-member European Union and carries the fate of the euro on her shoulders; she’s shown her power through a hard-line austerity solution for the European crisis.
Mark Zuckerberg (#25) is one of the youngest people on the list, at age 29; he dropped significantly from last year’s top-10 ranking after Facebook’s much-anticipated IPO turned out to be a flop. Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff (#18) is one of the list’s biggest gainers: At the midpoint of her first term, Rousseff’s emphasis on entrepreneurship has prompted a slew of new startups and energized Brazilian youths.
Apple CEO Tim Cook (#35) made a big upward move, too: A year after he succeeded iconic founder Steve Jobs, the company is the most valuable in the world. Apple stock hit an all-time high in September, at $696.82 a share: That’s up $319 from the day Jobs died in October 2011.
New members of the list include LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman (#71), the world’s most powerful venture capitalist and the most-connected man in Silicon Valley. Elon Musk (#66), the entrepreneur behind PayPal and Tesla Motors, is the most powerful man in space: His company SpaceX is a leader in the private space industry, and with that business set to boom, Musk stands to make out like a 19th-century railway tycoon.”
Photo - U.S. President Barack Obama, right, talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Nov. 3, 2011, during a meeting in Cannes, France. Obama and Merkel come in at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, on Forbes list of the world's most powerful people. Jim Watson/AFP Getty Images File
Time for me to walk on down the road…
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