Executive runner-up: Andy Rubin
What Rubin's rather underwhelming job title doesn't tell you is that he's the father of Android, Google's wildly successful mobile operating system. Unlike Apple's walled-garden approach to its iPhone OS, Android remains free and open-source, so any mobile-phone maker can use it in its phones and build its own user interface on top of it, something Motorola has done with its MotoBlur user interface and HTC with Sense. Android's stability and ease of development has also allowed widespread adoption since launching in late 2008. Rubin recently revealed that an eye-popping 160,000 Android-powered phones sell each day. Says the 47-year-old Rubin: "Building a product that people now ask for when they walk into a store is a total thrill." --J.P.M.
NEXT: Executive runner-up: Sheryl Sandberg
Last updated July 09 2010: 1:19 PM ET
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