The 50 Who Matter Now

The cover story of the July 2007 Business 2.o Magazine is "The 50 Who Matter Now", a list of the top 50 most influential people in the technology world (okay, some are companies or industries, as ever since Time Magazine named "You" the person of the year, such generalizations are all the rage). And lets face it, those who matter in tech matter to all of us.

As I read through this conglomeration of important names (some whom I had heard of - others I had not) I kept pondering how cool it would be to be in the same room with all these folks. It would be the networking event to end all networking events. The term "Power Networking" would show this party as an example on the web pages of Jimmy Wales' (number thirteen) Wikipedia.

Imagine for a moment finding yourself as the 51st person in the room of a classic grand old hotel ball room, having the chance to network with those who are changing the future over wine, cheese and some fancy salmon dinner.

What would you ask Steve Jobs (number two) or Fake Steve Jobs (number thirty-seven)? Would your conversation with Richard Branson (number thirty-three) warrant his sending you a handwritten follow up note? Could you and Jeff Bezos (number twelve) develop a mutually beneficial friendship that would lead to future business opportunities? Or would he at least send you a free Amazon.com gift certificate?

This fictional, yet amazing, dinner party would in itself change the world, as I believe that when true visionaries are put together, anything can happen (and usually does).

Here is the list of Business 2.0's 50 Who Matter Now:

1. Eric Schmidt, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin, CEO and co-founders, Google

2. Steve Jobs, Co-founder and CEO, Apple

3. Private Equity, The new Masters of the Universe

4. Michael Moritz, Managing director, Sequoia Capital

5. Paul Jacobs, CEO, Qualcomm

6. Rupert Murdoch, CEO, Newscorp

7. Susan Decker, Executive vice president, Yahoo!

8. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor, California

9. John Chambers, CEO, Cisco

10. Katsuaki Watanabe, President, Toyota

11. Brian McAndrews, CEO, aQuantive

12. Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon

13. Jimmy Wales, Founder Wikipedia

14. Mark Hurd, CEO and president, Hewlett-Packard

15. Bruce Chizen, CEO, Adobe

16. Barry Diller, CEO IAC/InterActiveCorp

17. Robin L, Co-founder and CEO, Baidu.com

18. Agile Software Development, A new appraoch to Web-based code

19. Martin Eberhard, Co-founder and CEO Tesla Motors

20. Shigeru Miyamoto, Senior managing director, Nintendo

21. Randall Stephenson, Chairman and CEO, AT&T

22. Michael Arrington, Founder, TechCrunch

23. Min Kao, Co-founder and CEO, Garmin

24. Tony Fadell, Senior vice-president, Apple

25. Philip Rosedale, Founder and CEO, Linden Labs

26. Tom Cogan, Chief project engineer, Boeing

27. Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, Co-founders, Skype and Joost

28. Reed Hundt, Vice chairman, Frontline Wireless

29. Nicholas Negroponte, Chairman, One Laptop Per Child

30. Charles Phillips, President, Oracle

31. Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani, Chairman Reliance Industries and chairman, Reliance ADA Group

32. Indra Nooyi, CEO, PepsiCo

33. Richard Branson, Founder, Virgin Group

34. Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO, Facebook

35. Howard Draft, Chairman and CEO DraftFCB

36. Kevin Walsh, Managing director of renewable energy, GE Energy Financial Services

37. Fake Steve Jobs, Author, Secret Diary of Steve Jobs

38. Arianna Huffington, Co-founder, Huffington Post

39. John Edmond, Co-founder, Cree

40. Sam Zell, Real estate magnate and media kingpin

41. Tim O'Reilly, Founder and CEO, O'Reilly Media

42. Doug Melton, Co-director, Harvard Stem Cell Institute

43. Elon Musk, Bleeding-edge entrepreneur

44. Evan Williams, Founder, Twitter

45. You, Web-enabled mass participation

46. Paul Graham, Founding partner, Y Combinator

47. Ed Iacobucci and Vern Raburn, CEO, DayJet and CEO, Eclipse Aviation

48. Gina Bianchini, CEO, Ning

49. Jason Calacanis, CEO, Mahalo

50. Jay Adelson, Chariman and CEO, Digg and Revision3

So if you and I cannot get invited to this party, we need to be on the look out for others who have the vision and the ability to influence change or to do it ourselves. Seek out dynamic people and learn from them. Help them achieve their ideas that are transforming the world of business, and share in the glory of accomplishment.

One side note, as the father of two highly spirited daughters, I am sad to see so few women on this list of those who inspire and motivate. By the time my kids are grown, I hope that that will have changed!!!

Have A Great Day.