The 50 Who Matter Now

In our second annual ranking, Business 2.0 has compiled an unabashedly subjective list of people, products, trends, and ideas that are transforming the world of business.

Richard Branson
Richard Branson
Founder, Virgin Group

Rank: 33

Why he matters: Branson has made billions from Virgin Atlantic Airways, Virgin Trains, Virgin Limousines, and some 200 other Virgin brands. Having done his part to deplete the ozone layer, he's now trying to make amends.

In September he announced that he will donate all profits from Virgin's transportation businesses during the next decade -- a sum that could exceed $3 billion -- to combating global warming. Then he and Al Gore set up a $25 million prize for the first inventor who develops a cost-effective way to extract greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Now he's partnered with Boeing and General Electric to produce a biofuel to power the jets of the future. It's the least he could do.

Adelson

Calacanis

Bianchini

Iacobucci, Raburn

Graham

You

Williams

Musk

Melton

O'Reilly

Edmond

Zell

Huffington

Fake Steve Jobs

Walsh

Draft

Zuckerberg

Branson

Nooyi

Ambani bros.

Phillips

Negroponte

Hundt

Friis, Zennstrom

Cogan

Rosedale

Fadell

Kao

Arrington

Stephenson

Miyamoto

Eberhard

Agile software

Li

Diller

Chizen

Hurd

Wales

Bezos

McAndrews

Watanabe

Chambers

Schwarzenegger

Decker

Murdoch

Jacobs

Moritz

Private equity

Jobs

Google trio
Ask Business 2.0 Got a business question? Startup CEOs and other experts will answer them here. (more)
How to build your own MySpace Meet 50 Who Matter winner Gina Bianchini. Her site, Ning, lets anyone be a social networking mogul. (more) video
100 fastest-growing techs Our annual rankings show another banner year for the businesses leading the tech revival. (more)

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.