Ray Kurzweil - Agenda Setters 2009

Name: Ray Kurzweil

Title: Inventor and futurist, Singularity University chancellor

Position: 47    Last year: 14

Why? Belief in the transformative potential of IT- and the drive to turn ideas into realities

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• Vineet Nayar
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• Michael A Cusumano

Ray Kurzweil is a futurist who's been thinking up the future for years - with his on-the-money past predictions including the emergence of the internet and a computer being world chess champion by 1998.

Kurzweil's not just a thinker, he's a doer - a writer of many books and an inventor of several technologies including flatbed scanners, music synthesizers and text-to-speech reading machines. Little wonder he counts Stevie Wonder among his friends.

He's also a businessman, consultant, lecturer and most recently founder and chancellor of the Singularity University - a multidisciplinary institution for both budding entrepreneurs and CEOs. Classes at the SU look at how IT technologies are transforming a variety of industries and how they could be used to tackle the world's biggest challenges, be it climate change or poverty.

The pedigree of SU faculty staff and advisors, and the limited intake of students, make it effectively the most exclusive technology club in the world but one that's not short on ambition. Expect a lot of disruption to be cooked up behind these doors.

Of course Kurzweil is not without his critics - and not everyone shares his sci-fi vision of an "augmented reality future" - but his energy and drive are undeniable. He's also achieved significant recognition, with at least 12 honorary doctorates to his name and honours handed down by three separate US presidents.

But its Kurzweil's conviction about the transformative potential of IT and his ability to apply these ideas across various industries that mark him out as an Agenda Setter. Not for the first time either: this year also marks his second consecutive showing on the list.