From Ahmadinejad to Oprah. From the ''Google Guys'' To the U.S. Consumer, Business 2.0 Publishes Its First-Ever List of the ''50 Who Matter Now''; Microsoft's Ray Ozzie Rates Higher Than Transitioning Chairman Bill Gates

Business Wire, June 21, 2006

NEW YORK -- Ben Bernanke, Robert Iger and Rupert Murdoch Also Make the Cut of Executives, Entrepreneurs and Innovators Setting Today's Business Agenda

Business 2.0 magazine has released it's first-ever "The 50 Who Matter Now," an eclectic and provocative array of executives, entrepreneurs and cutting-edge innovators who are setting today's business agenda. Topping the list, published in the July issue (on newsstands Monday, June 26), is the U.S. consumer, whose passions, hobbies and obsessions built, and continue to define the Web. Rounding out the top five are Google co-founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page (No. 2), Paul Jacobs, CEO, Qualcomm (No. 3), Rupert Murdoch, CEO, News Corp. (No. 4) and Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple Computer (No. 5).

In choosing the U.S. consumer, Business 2.0 states "You--or rather, the collaborative intelligence of tens of millions of people, the networked you--continually create and filter new forms of content, anointing the useful, the relevant, and the amusing and rejecting the rest." The magazine adds, they "do it on websites like Amazon, Flickr, and YouTube, via podcasts and SMS polling, and on millions of self-published blogs. In every case, you've become an integral part of the action as a member of the aggregated, interactive, self-organizing, auto-entertaining audience."

Landing on Business 2.0's list at No. 21 is Microsoft chairman and co-founder Bill Gates, who recently announced that he would transition out of a day-to-day role at the company and focus on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest philanthropic organization. According to the magazine, Gates has played "an increasingly ceremonial role, taking "think weeks" in the woods while Ray Ozzie charts the direction of the world's largest software company." Ozzie, who immediately assumed the title of chief software architect for Microsoft upon the Gates' announcement, comes in at number 10 on the list. Ozzie "has become the driving force behind Microsoft's effort to become nimbler in response to mounting competition from the likes of Google, Salesforce, open-source software, and dozens of Web 2.0 startups. The solution, he says, lies beyond cumbersome shrink-wrapped PC software (such as the tardy Windows Vista operating system). Salvation will come through online services that can be quickly improved, modified, and distributed via the Web."

Also making an appearance on the "The 50 Who Matter Now" list is entertainment mogul Oprah Winfrey at number 38, who the magazine calls a market force whose "whims still carry incredible weight with her 30 million viewers. In May she inked a contract with Simon & Schuster that landed her the biggest nonfiction book deal ever-- somewhere north of $12 million. And her Midas touch extends beyond retail: In February, when XM Satellite Radio announced the debut of its Oprah & Friends channel, the company's stock jumped by 5 percent."

Other notable entries on Business 2.0's "The 50 Who Matter Now" include:

No. 7, The Emerging Global Middle Class - China, India, Russia, Brazil, and Elsewhere - According to Goldman Sachs, in the next decade, more than 800 million people in China, India, Russia, and Brazil will qualify as middle class-- meaning they will earn more than $3,000 per year. To put the figure in context, that's more than the combined population of the United States, Western Europe, and Japan. These ambitious, well-educated workers represent both a threat and an opportunity for corporate America.

No. 9, The New Oil Despots - King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud (Saudi Arabia), Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Iran), Hugo Chavez (Venezuela), and Vladimir Putin (Russia) - They've got the U.S. economy over the barrel, and innovation industries aren't immune to their mischief. Inflation? Regional instability? Both threaten economic growth and the capital flows that are the lifeblood of entrepreneurship. But there's a silver lining: Those high oil prices also create new opportunities for alternative energy technologies.

No. 12, Robert Iger, CEO, Walt Disney Co. - In just 10 months at the helm, Iger has made nice with Steve Jobs and acquired the Pixar animation studio for $7.4 billion. Powerful Disney properties like ESPN are showing the rest of the industry how to extend a media brand to practically every device and format imaginable--TV, radio, print, the Web, iPods, and cell phones. And by quickly striking deals to sell TV shows on Apple's iTunes store, Disney is leading the charge when it comes to opening up new distribution channels for Hollywood content.

No. 20, Ben Bernanke, Chairman, Federal Reserve Board - The 14th Fed chief still has a crucial task to perform, and if he goofs, the health of the global economy--to say nothing of America's technology industry--is likely to suffer. The concerns are mounting: With inflation creeping upward, the American housing market going soft, and U.S. current-account deficits wildly out of line, will Bernanke be able to maintain the nation's growth while also retaining the confidence of foreign investors and currency traders?