 No. 9 Eric Schmidt, chairman and CEO, Google
Last year's position: 16
Larry Page and Sergey Brin may have founded Google, but it's Eric Schmidt who's shepherded the company from kooky start-up to big-time public concern. For that, our panel has elevated Schmidt seven spots from last year to mark his debut in the Top 10 (while neither Page nor Brin make this year's list).
One panellist said: "He's managed to harness the phenomenal creativity that exists in [Google] and bring in this real business discipline."
Schmidt is the man driving the company that's driving the rising trend of paid search. The panel also applauds him for embracing the offbeat dot-com culture at Google, despite his background in the more staid environments at Novell and Sun.
Admittedly there were a few bumps on the road to this year's IPO, but the deal went off and the stock price is still soaring. One panellist expressed concern that, just as Schmidt is the guy getting the praise now, he's also likely to be the one to take the fall should anything dodgy appear in the company's financials.
But for now, Google is ruling the roost in online search and whichever direction Schmidt steers it over the next year will cause waves throughout the industry.
|
