From finance to fashion and technology to trade, these are the people who
defined 2019.
The Bloomberg 50
Who has the most-subscribed-to YouTube channel? Who’s Big Oil’s big
dealmaker? And just how fast did Popeyes run out of fried chicken
sandwiches? Bloomberg reporters and editors from around the world have
answered these questions and more for the third annual Bloomberg 50, our
look at the people in business, entertainment, finance, politics, and
science and technology whose 2019 accomplishments merit recognition,
applause, and, maybe, extra pickles. Some names you’ll know—perhaps you’ve
heard of this Rihanna—but others you likely won’t, such as James Mwangi, the
man trying to turn Nairobi into the Dubai of Africa. And when you’re done
with 2019, go to the bottom of the page to find out who might make the list
in 2020.
Joey Levin
▶ CEO, IAC/InterActiveCorp, New York
The combined market value of digital-services incubator IAC and subsidiary Match Group Inc. is up $10.5 billion this year.
READ MORE
Robert Smith
▶ Chairman and CEO, Vista Equity Partners, Austin
Smith in May pledged to pay off the student loans of Morehouse College’s graduating class, a gift of about $34 million for more than 400 students.
READ MORE
Simón Borrero, Sebastian Mejia, Felipe Villamarin
▶ Founders, Rappi Inc., Bogotá
In April, Rappi received as much as $1 billion, the largest venture capital investment in a Latin American company.
READ MORE
Brian Donnelly, aka Kaws
▶ Artist
In April one of his paintings, expected to sell at auction for about $1 million, went for $14.8 million instead.
READ MORE
Kylie Jenner
▶ CEO, Kylie Cosmetics LLC, Calabasas, Calif.
Jenner is the world’s youngest—and Gen Z’s first—billionaire entrepreneur.
READ MORE
Bhushan Kumar
▶ Chairman, T-Series Pvt Ltd., Noida, India
The record label and film production company’s YouTube channel became the world’s most popular and now has 119 million subscribers.
READ MORE
Ramon Ang
▶ President, San Miguel Corp., Mandaluyong City, Philippines
San Miguel won a bid in May to acquire a majority stake in Holcim Philippines Inc., the country’s largest cement maker, a purchase that will help it build a 734 billion-peso ($14.4 billion) airport, the biggest infrastructure project in the nation’s history.
READ MORE
Mette Frederiksen
▶ Prime minister, Denmark
In June she became the youngest person to lead a Danish government, then two months later drew President Trump’s ire by saying Greenland wasn’t for sale.
READ MORE
Hong Kong protesters
Their demonstrations, ongoing for six months, have by their count at times involved almost 2 million people.
READ MORE
Popeyes’ fried chicken sandwich
The fast-food chain ran through what was supposed to be a three-month supply in 14 days.
READ MORE
Brian Niccol
▶ CEO, Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., Newport Beach, Calif.
The restaurant’s stock price is up about 75% this year and traded at a record high after it rebounded from a food-safety crisis.
READ MORE
Kevin Mayer
▶ Chairman, Disney Direct-to-Consumer and International division, Burbank, Calif.
Disney+, the company’s new streaming service, drew 10 million subscribers after launching in November, sending the stock to a record high.
READ MORE
Doug McMillon
▶ CEO, Walmart Inc., Bentonville, Ark.
After two shootings at his stores claimed 24 lives this summer, McMillon discontinued sales of bullets that are used in both handguns and some assault-style weapons, a decision with major repercussions given that Walmart had been selling 20% of ammunition in the U.S. and will now only sell 6% to 9%.
READ MORE
Simone Biles
▶ Gymnast
With 25 medals, she’s the most decorated athlete in the history of the sport’s world championships.
READ MORE
Kevin Feige
▶ President, Marvel Studios LLC, Burbank, Calif.
Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame became the top-grossing film of all time, with ticket sales of more than $2.8 billion.
READ MORE
Mortimer “Tim” Buckley
▶ CEO and chairman, Vanguard Group Inc., Malvern, Pa.
This year, investors added more than $214 billion into all Vanguard funds, second only to asset management industry leader BlackRock Inc.
READ MORE
Gita Gopinath
▶ Economist
She became the International Monetary Fund’s first female chief economist in January.
READ MORE
Event Horizon Telescope leadership team
▶ Shep Doeleman, senior research fellow, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics ● Charles Gammie, astronomy and physics professor, University of Illinois ● Mareki Honma, astrophysics professor, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan ● Michael Johnson, SAO Einstein fellow, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics ● Sera Markoff, professor of theoretical high energy astrophysics, University of Amsterdam ● Monika Moscibrodzka, assistant professor of astrophysics, Radboud University, Netherlands
The researchers unveiled the first picture of a black hole in April.
READ MORE
Bruce Flatt
▶ CEO, Brookfield Asset Management Inc., Toronto
After Flatt acquired a majority stake in distressed debt specialist Oaktree Capital Management LP in March, Brookfield became the second-largest alternative-asset manager in the world with more than $500 billion in its portfolio.
READ MORE
Stacey Abrams
▶ Founder, Fair Fight 2020
Her group is tackling voter suppression in 20 battleground states before next year’s elections.
READ MORE
Emma Walmsley
▶ CEO, GlaxoSmithKline Plc, London
Her $5.1 billion acquisition of cancer-drug specialist Tesaro Inc., completed in January, made lucrative oncology therapies key to the company’s future.
READ MORE
David Simon
▶ Screenwriter
More than 7,000 screenwriters fired their agents in April, saying they weren’t acting in the interest of their clients, a month after Simon published a widely circulated blog post advocating for the mass defection.
READ MORE
Tobias Lütke
▶ CEO, Shopify Inc., Ottawa
Shopify’s shares have more than doubled this year, adding about $21 billion in market value to the e-commerce company.
READ MORE
Sabine Weyand
▶ Director general for trade, European Commission
As Europe’s chief Brexit negotiator, she got all 27 remaining EU governments to unite behind an accord, and now she’ll need her dealmaking skills to ensure that tariffs don’t crush the bloc’s economy.
READ MORE
Ann Sarnoff
▶ CEO, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., Burbank, Calif.
She’s the first woman to lead the studio founded by the four Warner brothers in 1923.
READ MORE
Phoebe Waller-Bridge
▶ Actor, writer, and producer
Her two shows, Fleabag and Killing Eve, were nominated for 20 Emmy Awards, with Fleabag winning six and Killing Eve one.
READ MORE
David Marcus
▶ Co-creator of Libra, Facebook Inc., Menlo Park, Calif.
Although there have been notable defections from his cryptocurrency project, it still has the support of 21 organizations and has more than 100 employees inside Facebook working on it.
READ MORE
Vicki Hollub
▶ President and CEO, Occidental Petroleum Corp., Houston
Her eleventh-hour hustle secured Occidental’s $55 billion takeover of Anadarko Petroleum Corp.
READ MORE
Jon McAuliffe & Michael Kharitonov
▶ Co-founders, Voleon Group, Berkeley, Calif.
As some big names in the quant world have struggled, the duo has quietly raked in almost $3 billion this year.
READ MORE
Ekrem Imamoglu
▶ Mayor, Istanbul
He won 54% of the vote in a June rerun of the mayoral election, a stinging indictment of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s economic policies and refusal to accept the outcome of the first vote.
READ MORE
Alex Blumberg & Matt Lieber
▶ Co-founders, Gimlet Media Inc., New York
In February, Blumberg and Lieber sold their podcasting company to Spotify Technology SA for $230 million, the biggest deal yet in the industry.
READ MORE
Jeff Zucker
▶ Chairman, Warner Media News & Sports, and President, CNN, New York
The roughly 50 town halls CNN has hosted for Democratic presidential candidates have played a major role in shaping the primary.
READ MORE
Rihanna
▶ Founder, Fenty, Paris
In May, the pop star-actress-influencer became the first woman to create an original fashion brand at LVMH SE and the first woman of color to run a label at the company, the first new house there in 32 years.
READ MORE
Jon Stewart
▶ Activist
His unrelenting efforts got Congress and the president to provide medical and financial aid for thousands of Sept. 11 first responders for the next seven decades.
READ MORE
James Mwangi
▶ CEO, Equity Group Holdings Plc, Nairobi, Kenya
Two deals in southern and central Africa will give Equity Group, which has 14 million customers, access to 2 million more.
READ MORE
Lisa Su
▶ CEO, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Santa Clara, Calif.
AMD’s stock is up about 90% during a year when it unveiled processors that are faster and cheaper than Intel Corp.’s.
READ MORE
U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team
More than 15.6 million Americans watched them win their second consecutive World Cup in July, which, along with the team’s 2015 win, are the two most-watched soccer games in the country’s history.
READ MORE
Ritesh Agarwal
▶ Founder and CEO, OYO Rooms, Gurgaon, India
OYO became the world’s No. 2 hotel operator by room count in August, and it’s poised to overtake No. 1 Marriott International Inc. early next year.
READ MORE
Gabriela Cámara
▶ Chef and presidential adviser
Anyone unfamiliar with Cámara had the opportunity to get to know her this year, thanks to four high-profile projects: a restaurant opening, a cookbook, a Netflix documentary—and a role as food policy adviser to Mexico’s president.
READ MORE
Marek & Tomasz Sekielski
▶ Documentarians
After the release of Tell No One, their documentary revealing the extent of the pedophilia crisis in Poland’s Catholic Church, the country doubled prison terms for child sex offenders, to as many as 30 years.
READ MORE
Zhang Yong & Shu Ping
▶ Founders, Haidilao International Holding Ltd., Beijing
China’s largest hot pot chain opened 130 restaurants and saw its stock value almost double this year.
READ MORE
Greta Thunberg
▶ Climate activist
In September the 16-year-old Swede led a climate change protest that involved 7.6 million people across 185 countries.
READ MORE
Ethan Brown
▶ CEO, Beyond Meat Inc., El Segundo, Calif.
Since the company’s May IPO, shares have risen about 200% to give the company a $4.5 billion valuation.
READ MORE
Ankiti Bose
▶ Co-founder and CEO, Zilingo Pte Ltd., Singapore
A $226 million funding round for Bose’s apparel-sourcing startup pushed it to a near-unicorn valuation, making her one of the few women in tech to run a company of that size.
READ MORE
Shari Redstone
▶ Vice chairwoman, CBS Inc. and Viacom Corp., New York
After 13 years, Redstone got her wish in August when it was announced that CBS and Viacom planned to merge by the end of the year.
READ MORE
Eric Yuan
▶ CEO, Zoom Video Communications Inc., San Jose
Zoom’s stock price has almost doubled since an April IPO, making it one of the year’s best-performing newly listed tech companies in the U.S.
READ MORE
Curaleaf is now the biggest U.S. marijuana company, with a market value of about $2.5 billion.
READ MORE
Jacinda Ardern
▶ Prime minister, New Zealand
She banned military-style semiautomatic and assault rifles six days after 51 people died in the worst mass shooting in New Zealand’s modern history.
READ MORE
Stephanie Kelton
▶ Economist, Stony Brook University
A five-year Google Trends analysis shows that searches for “Modern Monetary Theory” more than quadrupled in early 2019 from previous highs, in part because of her evangelism.
READ MORE
Lil Nas X
▶ Musician
His Old Town Road spent 19 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, the longest a song has held that spot in the chart’s 61-year history.
READ MORE
Lil Nas X
▶ Musician
His Old Town Road spent 19 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, the longest a song has held that spot in the chart’s 61-year history.
READ MORE
Stephanie Kelton
▶ Economist, Stony Brook University
A five-year Google Trends analysis shows that searches for “Modern Monetary Theory” more than quadrupled in early 2019 from previous highs, in part because of her evangelism.
READ MORE
Jacinda Ardern
▶ Prime minister, New Zealand
She banned military-style semiautomatic and assault rifles six days after 51 people died in the worst mass shooting in New Zealand’s modern history.
READ MORE
Curaleaf is now the biggest U.S. marijuana company, with a market value of about $2.5 billion.
READ MORE
Eric Yuan
▶ CEO, Zoom Video Communications Inc., San Jose
Zoom’s stock price has almost doubled since an April IPO, making it one of the year’s best-performing newly listed tech companies in the U.S.
READ MORE
Shari Redstone
▶ Vice chairwoman, CBS Inc. and Viacom Corp., New York
After 13 years, Redstone got her wish in August when it was announced that CBS and Viacom planned to merge by the end of the year.
READ MORE
Ankiti Bose
▶ Co-founder and CEO, Zilingo Pte Ltd., Singapore
A $226 million funding round for Bose’s apparel-sourcing startup pushed it to a near-unicorn valuation, making her one of the few women in tech to run a company of that size.
READ MORE
Ethan Brown
▶ CEO, Beyond Meat Inc., El Segundo, Calif.
Since the company’s May IPO, shares have risen about 200% to give the company a $4.5 billion valuation.
READ MORE
Greta Thunberg
▶ Climate activist
In September the 16-year-old Swede led a climate change protest that involved 7.6 million people across 185 countries.
READ MORE
Zhang Yong & Shu Ping
▶ Founders, Haidilao International Holding Ltd., Beijing
China’s largest hot pot chain opened 130 restaurants and saw its stock value almost double this year.
READ MORE
Marek & Tomasz Sekielski
▶ Documentarians
After the release of Tell No One, their documentary revealing the extent of the pedophilia crisis in Poland’s Catholic Church, the country doubled prison terms for child sex offenders, to as many as 30 years.
READ MORE
Gabriela Cámara
▶ Chef and presidential adviser
Anyone unfamiliar with Cámara had the opportunity to get to know her this year, thanks to four high-profile projects: a restaurant opening, a cookbook, a Netflix documentary—and a role as food policy adviser to Mexico’s president.
READ MORE
Ritesh Agarwal
▶ Founder and CEO, OYO Rooms, Gurgaon, India
OYO became the world’s No. 2 hotel operator by room count in August, and it’s poised to overtake No. 1 Marriott International Inc. early next year.
READ MORE
U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team
More than 15.6 million Americans watched them win their second consecutive World Cup in July, which, along with the team’s 2015 win, are the two most-watched soccer games in the country’s history.
READ MORE
Lisa Su
▶ CEO, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Santa Clara, Calif.
AMD’s stock is up about 90% during a year when it unveiled processors that are faster and cheaper than Intel Corp.’s.
READ MORE
James Mwangi
▶ CEO, Equity Group Holdings Plc, Nairobi, Kenya
Two deals in southern and central Africa will give Equity Group, which has 14 million customers, access to 2 million more.
READ MORE
Jon Stewart
▶ Activist
His unrelenting efforts got Congress and the president to provide medical and financial aid for thousands of Sept. 11 first responders for the next seven decades.
READ MORE
Rihanna
▶ Founder, Fenty, Paris
In May, the pop star-actress-influencer became the first woman to create an original fashion brand at LVMH SE and the first woman of color to run a label at the company, the first new house there in 32 years.
READ MORE
Jeff Zucker
▶ Chairman, Warner Media News & Sports, and President, CNN, New York
The roughly 50 town halls CNN has hosted for Democratic presidential candidates have played a major role in shaping the primary.
READ MORE
Alex Blumberg & Matt Lieber
▶ Co-founders, Gimlet Media Inc., New York
In February, Blumberg and Lieber sold their podcasting company to Spotify Technology SA for $230 million, the biggest deal yet in the industry.
READ MORE
Ekrem Imamoglu
▶ Mayor, Istanbul
He won 54% of the vote in a June rerun of the mayoral election, a stinging indictment of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s economic policies and refusal to accept the outcome of the first vote.
READ MORE
Jon McAuliffe & Michael Kharitonov
▶ Co-founders, Voleon Group, Berkeley, Calif.
As some big names in the quant world have struggled, the duo has quietly raked in almost $3 billion this year.
READ MORE
Vicki Hollub
▶ President and CEO, Occidental Petroleum Corp., Houston
Her eleventh-hour hustle secured Occidental’s $55 billion takeover of Anadarko Petroleum Corp.
READ MORE
David Marcus
▶ Co-creator of Libra, Facebook Inc., Menlo Park, Calif.
Although there have been notable defections from his cryptocurrency project, it still has the support of 21 organizations and has more than 100 employees inside Facebook working on it.
READ MORE
Phoebe Waller-Bridge
▶ Actor, writer, and producer
Her two shows, Fleabag and Killing Eve, were nominated for 20 Emmy Awards, with Fleabag winning six and Killing Eve one.
READ MORE
Ann Sarnoff
▶ CEO, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., Burbank, Calif.
She’s the first woman to lead the studio founded by the four Warner brothers in 1923.
READ MORE
Sabine Weyand
▶ Director general for trade, European Commission
As Europe’s chief Brexit negotiator, she got all 27 remaining EU governments to unite behind an accord, and now she’ll need her dealmaking skills to ensure that tariffs don’t crush the bloc’s economy.
READ MORE
Tobias Lütke
▶ CEO, Shopify Inc., Ottawa
Shopify’s shares have more than doubled this year, adding about $21 billion in market value to the e-commerce company.
READ MORE
David Simon
▶ Screenwriter
More than 7,000 screenwriters fired their agents in April, saying they weren’t acting in the interest of their clients, a month after Simon published a widely circulated blog post advocating for the mass defection.
READ MORE
Emma Walmsley
▶ CEO, GlaxoSmithKline Plc, London
Her $5.1 billion acquisition of cancer-drug specialist Tesaro Inc., completed in January, made lucrative oncology therapies key to the company’s future.
READ MORE
Stacey Abrams
▶ Founder, Fair Fight 2020
Her group is tackling voter suppression in 20 battleground states before next year’s elections.
READ MORE
Bruce Flatt
▶ CEO, Brookfield Asset Management Inc., Toronto
After Flatt acquired a majority stake in distressed debt specialist Oaktree Capital Management LP in March, Brookfield became the second-largest alternative-asset manager in the world with more than $500 billion in its portfolio.
READ MORE
Event Horizon Telescope leadership team
▶ Shep Doeleman, senior research fellow, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics ● Charles Gammie, astronomy and physics professor, University of Illinois ● Mareki Honma, astrophysics professor, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan ● Michael Johnson, SAO Einstein fellow, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics ● Sera Markoff, professor of theoretical high energy astrophysics, University of Amsterdam ● Monika Moscibrodzka, assistant professor of astrophysics, Radboud University, Netherlands
The researchers unveiled the first picture of a black hole in April.
READ MORE
Gita Gopinath
▶ Economist
She became the International Monetary Fund’s first female chief economist in January.
READ MORE
Mortimer “Tim” Buckley
▶ CEO and chairman, Vanguard Group Inc., Malvern, Pa.
This year, investors added more than $214 billion into all Vanguard funds, second only to asset management industry leader BlackRock Inc.
READ MORE
Kevin Feige
▶ President, Marvel Studios LLC, Burbank, Calif.
Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame became the top-grossing film of all time, with ticket sales of more than $2.8 billion.
READ MORE
Simone Biles
▶ Gymnast
With 25 medals, she’s the most decorated athlete in the history of the sport’s world championships.
READ MORE
Doug McMillon
▶ CEO, Walmart Inc., Bentonville, Ark.
After two shootings at his stores claimed 24 lives this summer, McMillon discontinued sales of bullets that are used in both handguns and some assault-style weapons, a decision with major repercussions given that Walmart had been selling 20% of ammunition in the U.S. and will now only sell 6% to 9%.
READ MORE
Kevin Mayer
▶ Chairman, Disney Direct-to-Consumer and International division, Burbank, Calif.
Disney+, the company’s new streaming service, drew 10 million subscribers after launching in November, sending the stock to a record high.
READ MORE
Brian Niccol
▶ CEO, Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., Newport Beach, Calif.
The restaurant’s stock price is up about 75% this year and traded at a record high after it rebounded from a food-safety crisis.
READ MORE
Popeyes’ fried chicken sandwich
The fast-food chain ran through what was supposed to be a three-month supply in 14 days.
READ MORE
Hong Kong protesters
Their demonstrations, ongoing for six months, have by their count at times involved almost 2 million people.
READ MORE
Mette Frederiksen
▶ Prime minister, Denmark
In June she became the youngest person to lead a Danish government, then two months later drew President Trump’s ire by saying Greenland wasn’t for sale.
READ MORE
Ramon Ang
▶ President, San Miguel Corp., Mandaluyong City, Philippines
San Miguel won a bid in May to acquire a majority stake in Holcim Philippines Inc., the country’s largest cement maker, a purchase that will help it build a 734 billion-peso ($14.4 billion) airport, the biggest infrastructure project in the nation’s history.
READ MORE
Bhushan Kumar
▶ Chairman, T-Series Pvt Ltd., Noida, India
The record label and film production company’s YouTube channel became the world’s most popular and now has 119 million subscribers.
READ MORE
Kylie Jenner
▶ CEO, Kylie Cosmetics LLC, Calabasas, Calif.
Jenner is the world’s youngest—and Gen Z’s first—billionaire entrepreneur.
READ MORE
Brian Donnelly, aka Kaws
▶ Artist
In April one of his paintings, expected to sell at auction for about $1 million, went for $14.8 million instead.
READ MORE
Simón Borrero, Sebastian Mejia, Felipe Villamarin
▶ Founders, Rappi Inc., Bogotá
In April, Rappi received as much as $1 billion, the largest venture capital investment in a Latin American company.
READ MORE
Robert Smith
▶ Chairman and CEO, Vista Equity Partners, Austin
Smith in May pledged to pay off the student loans of Morehouse College’s graduating class, a gift of about $34 million for more than 400 students.
READ MORE
Joey Levin
▶ CEO, IAC/InterActiveCorp, New York
The combined market value of digital-services incubator IAC and subsidiary Match Group Inc. is up $10.5 billion this year.
READ MORE
Ones To Watch
The people below are prime contenders to wind up on next year’s Bloomberg
50. Don’t say we didn’t give you a heads-up.
Seema Hingorani
● Founder and chair, Girls Who Invest Inc.
The former chief investment officer who managed $160 billion with the New York City Retirement System started a training program for women in investing.
Doron Myersdorf
● Co-founder and CEO, StoreDot Ltd.
The company raised $130 million to develop batteries that can charge a cellphone in 60 seconds and an electric vehicle in five minutes. Its technology is based on a new generation of organic compounds that store energy more efficiently and safely.
Audrey Tang
● Digital minister, Taiwan
The free-software advocate—and Taiwan’s first transgender government minister—is pushing for a “digital democracy” that would allow for things such as online participation in budget matters and petitions.
Nadya Okamoto
● Founder and executive director, Period Inc.
The 21-year-old’s nonprofit—the largest youth-run nongovernmental organization in women’s health—is working to improve access to menstrual products by handing them out for free. This year she announced a national donation drive and a campaign to end taxes on tampons.
John Targon
● Fashion designer, Fall Risk
Targon struck out on his own after stints at Celine and Burberry Group Plc. His current project is a retro-inspired line that includes cashmere waffle knits and kitschy sweaters. Instead of following the fashion calendar, Targon drops “volumes” at random times and takes orders by phone and Instagram.
Jason Kelly
● Co-founder and CEO, Ginkgo Bioworks Inc.
Kelly’s synthetic biology company genetically engineers organisms for fertilizer, drugs, food flavorings, and other industrial applications. This year it raised an additional $290 million to apply its technology to cosmetics, nutrition, and consumer goods.
Alison Roman
● Cookbook author
Roman’s recipes regularly go viral. The salted shortbread and chocolate chunk cookies in her bestselling Dining In became known simply as “the cookies” on social media, and her chickpea and coconut stew recipe for the New York Times, where she’s a columnist, is “the stew.” She recently released her second cookbook, Nothing Fancy.
Deborah Navarro
● Engineer and co-founder, AirLev
After getting Elon Musk’s attention in a SpaceX competition that saw her and a team design passenger pods for his “hyperloop” system, the 27-year-old co-founded a company dedicated to moving goods autonomously using air levitation.
Desus Nice & The Kid Mero
● Comedians
The duo from the Bronx host a late-night talk show, Desus & Mero, that evolved from their Bodega Boys podcast. Daniel Baker and Joel Martinez have an internet-savvy, New York-focused take on news and pop culture, inflected with their respective Jamaican and Dominican backgrounds. The pair refer to President Trump as “Trumpito,” and the inaugural guest on their Showtime program was Bronx native Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Veronica Escobar
● Representative for Texas’ 16th Congressional District
The Democrat, who represents Beto O’Rourke’s former district, saw her star rise after her refusal to meet with President Trump during his visit to El Paso in the wake of last summer’s Walmart shooting. Her phrasing—that he was “not welcome here”—drew comparisons to Trump’s language describing an immigrant “invasion,” which the gunman was seeking to beat back.
Anthony von Mandl
● Founder and CEO, Mark Anthony Group of Cos.
The Canadian wine seller’s beverage portfolio now includes Mike’s Hard Lemonade and White Claw, which has 60% market share for spiked seltzer. Flavored malt beverages might not be the height of good taste, but von Mandl sees them as the bedrock of an “iconic global brand.”
Dan McCabe
● CEO, Precidian Investments
McCabe patented a style of exchange-traded fund that reports holdings quarterly, not daily, as is usual. Active managers used to steer clear of ETFs, fearing the required disclosures would compromise their secret sauce, but McCabe’s is now being licensed to BlackRock Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Bobi Wine
● Politician and pop star
Wine, a member of the Ugandan Parliament and leader of a loose opposition group called People Power, will likely challenge Yoweri Museveni in the 2021 presidential election. Born in the slums of Kampala, Wine (real name: Robert Kyagulanyi) sings about social justice and criticizes the government. In Freedom, he sings, “We’re living in a world similar to the one of the slave trade / This oppression is worse than apartheid.”
Susan Korn
● Designer and creative director, Susan Alexandra
After working for a jewelry designer in New York, Korn started her own accessories line—rainbow-colored beaded handbags and earrings—from her apartment in Chinatown. The brand was already popular with fashion editors and influencers, but it went viral after model Gigi Hadid sported one of Korn’s handbags on Instagram. Korn recently introduced a ready-to-wear fashion line for 2020.
Fabián von Hauske Valtierra & Jeremiah Stone
● Chefs and restaurateurs
After opening three acclaimed Manhattan restaurants (Contra, Wildair, and Una Pizza Napoletana), publishing A Very Serious Cookbook (with Alison Roman), and starting a podcast, the pair is opening a wine shop and bar inside a marketplace and high-end food court on the Lower East Side.
Don’t Forget the Usual Suspects
Many of these names appear regularly on lists of influential people, which
is why we’re acknowledging them here.
● William Barr, U.S. attorney general● Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon.com Inc.● Jair Bolsonaro, President of Brazil● Sergey Brin, Director, Alphabet Inc.● Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO, Berkshire Hathaway Inc.● Tim Cook, CEO, Apple Inc.● Ronan Farrow, Journalist● Pope Francis● Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China● Boris Johnson, Prime minister of the U.K.● Kim Jong Un, Supreme leader of North Korea● Emmanuel Macron, President of France● Narendra Modi, Prime minister of India● Elon Musk, CEO, Tesla Inc. and SpaceX● Larry Page, Director, Alphabet Inc.● Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives● Mike Pompeo, U.S. secretary of state● Vladimir Putin, President of Russia● Mohammed bin Salman, Crown prince of Saudi Arabia● Masayoshi Son, CEO, SoftBank Group Corp.● Donald Trump, President of the U.S.● Margrethe Vestager, European commissioner for competition● Serena Williams, Tennis player● Oprah Winfrey, Chairman and CEO, Oprah Winfrey Network LLC● Mark Zuckerberg, Chairman and CEO, Facebook Inc.
We have to say something about …
Adam Neumann
Yes, the co-founder and former chief executive officer of WeWork is the
avatar of the unicorn era. Neumann’s startup reached a peak valuation of
$47 billion on the notion that office subleases were world-changing and
consciousness-elevating. Eventually, investors wised up that WeWork was
neither. They ousted Neumann, wrote down the company’s value by 83%, to
about $8 billion, and laid off almost 20% of its staff. Neumann was a
terrible CEO, clearly. But as a trader in startup equity, he’s a
genius—a savant of Silicon Valley solutionism, a great baron of bullshit
who walked away with a billion-dollar exit package as billions of
dollars of value were destroyed. At some point in any asset bubble, a
brilliant strategist will pierce the veil of delusion and return the
market to sanity. Neumann is unusual in that he was both the delusion
and the person who profited from it.
—Max Chafkin
Featured in
Bloomberg Businessweek
, Dec. 9, 2019.
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Photographs● Lil Nas X: Jason Kempin/Getty Images● Stephanie Kelton: Scott McIntyre/Bloomberg● Jacinda Ardern: Marlene Awaad/Bloomberg● Boris Jordan: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg● Eric Yuan: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg● Shari Redstone: Dipasupil/Getty Images● Ankiti Bose: Photograph by Heather Sten for Bloomberg Businessweek● Ethan Brown: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg● Greta Thunberg: Niklas Grapatin/laif/Redux● Zhang Yong & Shu Ping: Mai Shangmin/China News Service/Getty Images● Marek & Tomasz Sekielski: Marcin Wziontek/Shutterstock● Gabriela Cámara: Photograph by Heather Sten for Bloomberg Businessweek● Ritesh Agarwal: Photograph by Heather Sten for Bloomberg Businessweek● U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images● Lisa Su: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg● James Mwangi: Riccardo Gangale/Bloomberg● Jon Stewart: Michael Reaves/Getty Images● Rihanna: Kevin Mazur/Fenty Beauty/Getty Images● Jeff Zucker: Photograph by Heather Sten for Bloomberg Businessweek● Alex Blumberg & Matt Lieber: Photograph by Yael Malka for Bloomberg Businessweek● Ekrem Imamoglu: Tolga Sezgin/NarPhotos/Redux● Jon McAuliffe & Michael Kharitonov: Courtesy Voleon Group● Vicki Hollub: Photograph by Heather Sten for Bloomberg Businessweek● David Marcus: Photograph by Heather Sten for Bloomberg Businessweek● Phoebe Waller-Bridge: Emma McIntyre/BAFTA LA/Getty Images● Ann Sarnoff: Krista Kennell/Patrick McMullan/Getty Images● Sabine Weyand: Imago/ZUMA Press● Tobias Lütke: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg● David Simon: Photograph by Heather Sten for Bloomberg Businessweek● Emma Walmsley: Mark Kerrison/Alamy● Stacey Abrams: Melina Mara/The Washington Post/Getty Images● Bruce Flatt: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg● Event Horizon Telescope leadership team: Doeleman: Xinhua/Alamy; Gammie: Courtesy L. Brian Stauffer/University of Illinois; Honma: : Franck Robichon/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock; Johnson: Center for Astrophysics/Harvard & Smithsonian; Markoff: Liu Jie/Xinhua/Alamy; Moscibrodzka: Stephanie Lecocq/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock● Gita Gopinath: Photograph by Heather Sten for Bloomberg Businessweek● Mortimer “Tim” Buckley: Jennifer Weisbord● Kevin Feige: Danny Moloshok/Reuters● Simone Biles: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images● Doug McMillon: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg● Kevin Mayer: Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney● Brian Niccol: Shaughn and John● Popeyes’ fried chicken sandwich: Photograph by Heather Sten for Bloomberg Businessweek● Hong Kong protesters: Photograph by Heather Sten for Bloomberg Businessweek● Mette Frederiksen: Ints Kalnins/Reuters● Ramon Ang: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg● Bhushan Kumar: Photograph by Mahesh Shantaram for Bloomberg Businessweek● Kylie Jenner: Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images● Brian Donnelly, aka Kaws: David M. Benett/Dior Couture/Getty Images● Simón Borrero, Sebastian Mejia, Felipe Villamarin: Courtesy Rappi● Robert Smith: Marcus Ingram/Getty Images● Joey Levin: Photograph by Heather Sten for Bloomberg Businessweek● Seema Hingorani: Christopher Goodney/Bloomerg● Doron Myersdorf: Jack Gues/AFP/Getty Images● Audrey Tang: Courtsey Tang● Nadya Okamoto: Dimitrios Kambouris/getty Images● John Targon: Sansho Scott/BFA● Jason Kelly: Tony Luong● Alison Roman: Mike McGregor/Eyevine/Redux● Deborah Navarro: Gonzalo Marroquin/Patrick McMullan/Getty Images● Desus Nice & The Kid Mero: Taylor Hill/Getty Images● Veronica Escobar: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images● Anthony von Mandl: Patrick McMullan/Getty Images● Dan McCabe: Courtsey McCabe● Bobi Wine: Sumy Sadurni/AFP/Getty Images● Susan Korn: Courtsey Korn● Fabián von Hauske Valtierra & Jeremiah Stone: Sylvain Gaboury/Patrick McMullan/Getty Images
● Cover Photo: Heather Sten for Bloomberg Businessweek; Alamy; AP Images;
Bloomberg; Center for Astrophysics/Harvard and Smithsonian; Rappi; Voleon
Group; Getty Images; Gotham/GC Images; Jennifer Wesisbord; Mattesh
Shantaram; Michael Campanella/Guardian/eyevine; Reduxj; Shaughn and John;
Shutterstock; University of Illinnois; Wireimage; Yael Malka ● Neuman:
Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images
(Corrects name of chickpea and coconut dish. An earlier version corrected
the funds that Storedot Ltd. raised, the time it takes for their batteries
to charge an electric vehicle, and the nature of the technology, as well
as the location of Kylie Cosmetics LLC and name of Seema Hingorani’s
former employer.)
