THE WORLD’S MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE 2013

Who’s more powerful: the autocratic leader of a former superpower or the handcuffed commander in chief of the most dominant country in the world? This year the votes for the World’s Most Powerful went to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He climbs one spot ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama, who held the title in 2012.

Rank Name/Title Organization Age
1

Vladimir Putin

President

Russia 61
2

Barack Obama

President

United States 52
3

Xi Jinping

General Secretary, Communist Party

China 60
4

Pope Francis

Pope

Roman Catholic Church 76
5

Angela Merkel

Chancellor

Germany 59
6

Bill Gates

Co-Chair

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation 58
7

Ben Bernanke

Chairman, Federal Reserve

United States 59
8

Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud

King

Saudi Arabia 89
9

Mario Draghi

President

European Central Bank 66
10

Michael Duke

CEO

Wal-Mart Stores 63
11

David Cameron

Prime Minister

United Kingdom 47
12

Carlos Slim Helu & family

Honorary Chairman

América Móvil 73
13

Warren Buffett

CEO

Berkshire Hathaway 83
14

Li Keqiang

Premier

China 58
15

Jeff Bezos

CEO

Amazon.com 49
16

Rex Tillerson

CEO

Exxon Mobil 61
17

Sergey Brin

Cofounder, Director Of Special Projects

Google 40
17

Larry Page

CEO

Google 40
18

Francois Hollande

President

France 59
19

Timothy Cook

CEO

Apple 52
20

Dilma Rousseff

President

Brazil 65
21

Sonia Gandhi

President, Indian National Congress

India 66
22

Jamie Dimon

CEO

JPMorgan Chase 57
23

Ali Hoseini-Khamenei

Grand Ayatollah

Iran 74
24

Mark Zuckerberg

Cofounder, Chairman and CEO

Facebook 29
25

Jeffrey Immelt

CEO

General Electric 57
26

Benjamin Netanyahu

Prime Minister

Israel 64
27

Lloyd Blankfein

CEO

Goldman Sachs Group 59
28

Manmohan Singh

Prime Minister

India 81
29

Michael Bloomberg

Mayor, New York City

United States 71
30

Li Ka-shing

Chairman

Hutchison Whampoa 85
31

Charles Koch

CEO

Koch Industries 77
31

David Koch

Executive Vice President

Koch Industries 73
32

Ban Ki-moon

Secretary-General

United Nations 69
33

Rupert Murdoch & family

Chairman and CEO

News Corp 82
34

Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan

President

United Arab Emirates 65
35

Christine Lagarde

Managing Director

International Monetary Fund 57
36

Xuedong Ding

Chairman, China Investment Corp

China 53
37

Enrique Pena Nieto

President

Mexico 47
38

Mukesh Ambani

Chairman

Reliance Industries 56
39

Haruhiko Kuroda

Governor, Bank of Japan

Japan 69
40

Ali Al-Naimi

Oil Minister

Saudi Arabia 78
41

Lee Kun-Hee

Chairman

Samsung Group 71
42

Larry Fink

Cofounder, CEO

BlackRock 60
43

Bill Clinton

Chairman

Clinton Global Initiative 67
44

Akio Toyoda

CEO

Toyota Motor 57
45

Masayoshi Son

CEO

Softbank 56
46

Kim Jong-un

Supreme Leader

North Korea 30
47

Elon Musk

Founder, CEO

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. 42
48

Terry Gou

CEO

Hon Hai Precision 63
49

Martin Winterkorn

Chairman

Volkswagen Group 66
50

Jim Yong Kim

President

World Bank 53
51

Lakshmi Mittal

Chairman and CEO

ArcelorMittal 63
52

Geun-hye Park

President

South Korea 61
53

Dmitry Medvedev

Prime Minister

Russia 48
54

Bernard Arnault & family

Chairman and CEO

LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton 64
55

Bill Gross

Cofounder and Co-Chief Investment Officer

Pacific Investment Management Company LLC 69
56

Virginia Rometty

CEO

IBM 55
57

Shinzo Abe

Prime Minister

Japan 59
58

Larry Ellison

CEO

Oracle 69
59

Margaret Chan

Director-General

World Health Organization 66
60

Igor Sechin

Chairman

Rosneft 53
61

Robin Li

Founder and CEO

Baidu 44
62

John Roberts

Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court

United States 58
63

Alisher Usmanov

Founder

Metalloinvest 60
64

Aliko Dangote

CEO

Dangote Group 56
65

Reid Hoffman

Partner

Greylock Partners 46
66

John Boehner

Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives

United States 63
67

Joaquin Guzman Loera

Drug Trafficker

Sinaloa Cartel 56
68

Jill Abramson

Executive Editor

New York Times Co. 59
69

Joseph Blatter

President

FIFA 77
70

Yngve Slyngstad

CEO, Norges Bank Investment Management

Norway 50
71

Mohammed Ibrahim

Founder

Mo Ibrahim Foundation 67
72

Janet Yellen

Vice Chairman, Federal Reserve

Washington, United States 67

 

Source: Forbes