His influence is awesome in sheer dollars - over the next year the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has a $40bn budget to spend. Much of that will go to private sector companies creating technology for the surveillance of individuals.

He's the man behind the US-VISIT scheme, the country's practice of using biometric technology to track visitors at its borders. To upgrade the system the DHS recently awarded a contract to Accenture worth as much as $10bn. Since the scheme was implemented in January 2004 at 115 airports and 14 seaports, more than 4.5 million foreign nationals have been processed. Ridge plans to expand US-VISIT to include 50 land ports as well as additional seaports this year.

Earlier in his tenure Ridge championed the US Patriot Act, which expanded surveillance powers for law enforcement.

His purview at the DHS includes the use of technology for the analysis of intelligence data, protecting the country's borders and counteracting military weapons.

While he wields considerable power, the panel chose him also for his symbolic representation of an age of re-regulation we're entering in which governments are increasingly using technology to keep tabs on their citizens.

In the wake of 9/11, Ridge was sworn in as the first Office of Homeland Security Advisor. By December 2003 he became head of the newly created Department of Homeland Security, a position in which he works with 18,000 individuals in several different government agencies.

Ridge, governor of Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2001, is a Harvard graduate, Vietnam War veteran and former US Congressman.