50
The Bloomberg 50
Featured in Bloomberg Businessweek, Dec. 7, 2020. Subscribe now.
Photographers: Djeneba Aduayom, Braylen Dion, Andy Ryan Flores, Lelanie Foster, Giulio Ghirardi, Laurel Golio, Jeremy Liebman, Andrew Miksys, Bethany Mollenkof, Tracy Nguyen, Justin J. Wee, all for Bloomberg Businessweek
There was a joke on Twitter this fall: Decades from now, Ph.D. candidates in history will specialize in a particular day from 2020. Which is to say this year was, uh, big. Covid, a reckoning on race, and a U.S. election made compiling the fourth annual Bloomberg 50 easier in ways (many people are doing notable things) and harder in others (many people are doing notable things).
Here are a few rising above 2020’s high bar in our look at the people in business, entertainment, finance, politics, and science and technology whose accomplishments merit recognition: Aurora James got retailers to pledge 15% of their shelf space to Black-owned brands in the wake of George Floyd’s death, and Tim Bray quit his executive job at Amazon.com to protest the firing of workers who’d raised concerns about Covid. The president of Taiwan kept the pandemic under control, and when Australian wildfires raged, comedian Celeste Barber raised millions in relief.
See below for alums of our list whose 2020 efforts also deserved a nod. To check out who might appear on next year’s Bloomberg 50, scroll down—though we’d be lying if we said we could predict the next few days, let alone 2021.
Sumit Singh
CEO, Chewy Inc.
As Chewy came to dominate the online pet supply business, its stock price more than doubled, driving up its market value by almost $15 billion, to $26 billion.
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▲Andrew Kelly/Reuters
Billie Eilish
Singer-songwriter
She won the “big four” Grammys in January—best record, best song, best album, best new artist—which nobody had done in a single year since Christopher Cross in 1981.
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▲Jean-Baptiste Lacroix/AFP/Getty Images
Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg
Jane Fraser
President and CEO, global consumer banking, Citigroup Inc.
In September, Fraser was named the bank’s next CEO, and when she assumes the role in early 2021, she’ll be the first woman in the top job at a major U.S. bank.
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Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
John Roberts
U.S. chief justice, Supreme Court
He was in the majority 97% of the time in the term ending in July, his highest percentage in 15 years.
Read moreAurora James
Founder, Fifteen Percent Pledge
Nine retailers in the U.S. and Canada, including Macy’s Inc., Sephora USA Inc., and West Elm, have signed on to her pledge, which asks that they dedicate 15% of their shelves to products made by Black-owned businesses.
Read more▲Lelanie Foster for Bloomberg Businessweek
James Gorman
Chairman and CEO, Morgan Stanley
First, the bank unveiled the $13 billion takeover of retail brokerage ETrade Financial Corp. in February, then sprang another surprise in October with the $7 billion purchase of the fund company Eaton Vance Corp.
Read more▲Justin J. Wee for Bloomberg Businessweek
Jean-Baptiste Lacroix/AFP/Getty Images
Bong Joon-ho
Filmmaker
At the Academy Awards in February, his movie Parasite, a dark comedy exploring class differences in Seoul, became the first non-English film to win best picture, and Bong became the first South Korean to win best director.
Read moreStrive Masiyiwa
Founder and executive chairman, Econet Group
His foundation paid $10 million in cash and other assistance to more than 1,700 health-care workers to urge them not to strike over eroding wages.
Read more
▲Justin Chin/Bloomberg
Kristalina Georgieva
Managing director, International Monetary Fund
Since the coronavirus pandemic began, the fund has increased lending to member nations by 50%, to $270 billion.
Read moreSwizz Beatz and Timbaland
Co-creators, Verzuz
More than 20 million people have watched Verzuz performances on Instagram Live since they started in March.
Read more▲Swizz Beats: Tracy Nguyen for Bloomberg Businessweek; Timbaland: Andy Flores for Bloomberg Businessweek
Ashraf Shazly/AFP via Getty Images
Abdalla Hamdok
Prime Minister, Sudan
The former United Nations economist implemented a half-dozen major new policies this summer, maybe the boldest changes in the Muslim world in a century.
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Ernesto S. Ruscio/Getty Images
Reed Hastings
Co-CEO, Netflix Inc.
Netflix saw the fastest growth in its 23-year history when it added 28 million subscribers in the first nine months of 2020.
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Daniel Pockett/Getty Images
Celeste Barber
Comedian
The Facebook fundraiser she started in early January brought in more than $37 million for Australian wildfire aid, the largest charity drive in the platform’s history.
Read more
Joshua Rashaad McFadden/Getty Images
Letitia James
Attorney general, New York State
James has filed more than 35 lawsuits against the Trump administration this year, leading the charge against its attempts to block minorities and other voters.
Read moreAlan Howard
Co-founder, Brevan Howard Asset Management
The hedge fund manager traded his way to a 100% gain in investor cash, by far the best among peers, as the coronavirus pandemic sent global markets into a tailspin.
Read more
▲Shutterstock
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya
Opposition leader, Belarus
She’s spent four months in exile since her unlikely campaign turned into the biggest challenge ever to longtime dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
Read more▲Andrew Miksys for Bloomberg Businessweek
Linda Kirkpatrick
President, U.S. Issuers, Mastercard Inc.
Consumers are now using tap-to-pay 40% of the time in-store, up from only 30% a year ago, according to Mastercard, an increase of billions of transactions.
Read more▲Brad Ogbonna for Bloomberg Businessweek
Mindy Tucker
Sarah Cooper
Comedian
Her TikTok video How to Medical, which spoofed President Trump’s suggestion that ultraviolet light and disinfectant injections could cure Covid‑19, drew 25 million views on social media.
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Yonhap News/Newscom/ZUMA Press
Jeong Eun Kyeong
Commissioner, Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency
Jeong can take a lot of credit for South Korea’s turnaround, which saw it go from the world’s second-worst Covid-19 outbreak in February to a per capita case count that’s about 1/60th of the number in the U.S.
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FOCOUY/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Luis Lacalle Pou
President, Uruguay
The country has the lowest Covid-19 infection and mortality rates in South America despite sharing borders with pandemic hot spots Argentina and Brazil.
Read morePapa Giovanni Hospital’s Front-Line Workers
More than 60,000 medical workers in Italy have contracted Covid-19, part of a global onslaught that’s killed over 7,000 health-care providers worldwide.
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▲Giulio Ghirardi for Bloomberg Businessweek
Carmen Mandato/Getty Images
Colin Kaepernick
Activist
Kaepernick announced two major projects this summer, a six-part Netflix series about his high school years and a first-look deal with Walt Disney Co., which includes an ESPN docuseries chronicling the past five years.
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Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
Zeng Yuqun
Chairman and CEO, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd.
A February deal with Tesla Inc. to supply batteries to the automaker helped cut the price of the Model 3 in China to about $37,000, cheaper than anywhere else.
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Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg
Gwynne Shotwell
President and COO, SpaceX
In May, SpaceX became the first private company to send American astronauts into space.
Read moreOdunayo Eweniyi and Damilola Odufuwa
Co-founders, Feminist Coalition
The tech-savvy Nigerians raised almost $388,000 in two weeks to support protests against police brutality and corruption.
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▲Courtesy Odunayo Eweniyi and Damilola Odufuwa
Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi
Co-founders, Black Lives Matter
As many as 26 million people participated in Black Lives Matter protests in the weeks after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in late May, making it one of the largest movements in U.S. history.
Read more▲Cullors and Tometi: Djeneba Aduayom for Bloomberg Businessweek; Garza: Bethany Mollenkof for Bloomberg Businessweek
VCG/Getty Images
Wang Xing
Chairman and CEO, Meituan
Meituan, which became a lifeline when restrictions were imposed across China, has seen its share price surge more than 180% since the beginning of the year, swelling Wang’s fortune to over $20 billion.
Read moreDonna Langley
Chairman, Universal Filmed Entertainment Group
When Covid-19 struck, Langley released Trolls World Tour online, a move that earned the studio the ire of theater owners—and $100 million in streaming revenue.
Read more
▲Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan
Crown prince, Emirate of Abu Dhabi
He upended Middle Eastern geopolitics in September when he normalized relations with Israel, the first time that’s happened in the region since Jordan did it 26 years ago.
Read moreTim Bray
Former vice president, Amazon.com Inc.
In May, Bray resigned from his job to protest the firing of workers and employee activists who criticized warehouse conditions as Covid-19 cases mounted, a move he estimates cost him $1 million in salary and unvested shares.
Read more
▲Alana Peterson/The New York Times/Redux
Southern Bancorp
Darrin Williams
CEO, Southern Bancorp Inc.
He was part of a successful effort to add $10 billion for community development finance institutions in the second round of Paycheck Protection Program loans.
Read moreJohn Foley
CEO, Peloton Interactive Inc.
Revenue from Peloton’s bikes, treadmills, and services grew to $757.9 million through September, an increase of 232% from the same period a year earlier.
Read more▲Laurel Golio for Bloomberg Businessweek
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
Guy Fieri
Celebrity chef
He raised more than $21.5 million in seven weeks to assist unemployed restaurant workers.
Read more
Paul Yeung/Bloomberg
Byju Raveendran
CEO and founder, Think & Learn Pvt
Byju’s, his online education app, had 73 million users in October, up from more than 40 million in January.
Read moreThe Vaccine Chasers
Ugur Sahin, Chen Wei, Kizzmekia Corbett, Dan Barouch, and Sarah Gilbert
Researchers from countries across the globe are developing more than 200 experimental coronavirus vaccines, according to the World Health Organization, 51 of which have entered human trials.
Read more
▲Andreas Arnold/Picture Alliance/Getty Images; Li Xiang/Xinhua/ZUMA Press; Leah Millis/Reuters; Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; John Cairns/University of Oxford
Shutterstock
Special Purpose Acquisition Companies
Promoters have raised over $60 billion this year—more than in the previous 10 years combined—for companies that don’t have a business yet.
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Committee on Arrangements for the 2020 Republican National Committee/Getty Images
Madison Cawthorn
Representative-elect, North Carolina
The 25-year-old is the youngest Republican ever elected to the House of Representatives and will be the first U.S. lawmaker born in the 1990s when he’s sworn into Congress.
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Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images
Jason Hehir
Documentarian
Hehir’s 10-part docuseries about Michael Jordan’s final season with the Chicago Bulls in 1998 drew 6.3 million viewers the night it premiered on ESPN and ESPN2 in April, a record for a documentary on the network, and an average of 5.6 million over the following month, making it the most-watched doc in the network’s history.
Read more
Imaginechina
Viya
Livestreamer
One of the country’s most popular media personalities, she hit record numbers this year with her shopping broadcasts, averaging 20 million views in April—double the figure in late 2019—as consumers opted to transact from the safety of their sofas.
Read moreCovid Tracking Project
Jeff Hammerbacher, Erin Kissane, Robinson Meyer, and Alexis Madrigal, co-founders
Since early March the Covid Tracking Project has cataloged more than 170 million tests, becoming the authoritative source for virus statistics in the U.S.
Read more
▲Hammerbacher; Kissane; Meyer; Kent Hernandez
Renee Montgomery
Guard, Atlanta Dream
Montgomery gave a boost to Morris Brown College’s $5 million fundraising campaign, which helped it apply for reaccreditation.
Read more▲Braylen Dion for Bloomberg Businessweek
Aaron Favila/AP Photo
Maria Ressa
CEO, Rappler Inc.
She faces up to six years in jail after being found guilty of “cyber libel” in a landmark case for press freedom.
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David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Keller Rinaudo
Co-founder and CEO, Zipline
Zipline drones have delivered more than 15,000 bundles of personal protective equipment to Novant Health facilities in North Carolina.
Read more
Wei Leng Tay/Bloomberg
Forrest Li
Founder, chairman, and group CEO, Sea Ltd.
Sea, now worth about $83 billion, is the most valuable company in the region.
Read moreBaiju Bhatt and Vladimir Tenev
Co-founders, Robinhood
Robinhood added 3 million accounts in the first four months of 2020 as millennials and Zoomers stuck at home flocked to the stock market.
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▲David Paul Morris/Bloomberg; Brendan McDermid/Reuters
Aya Kyogoku and Hisashi Nogami
Director (Kyogoku) and Producer (Nogami), entertainment planning and development, Nintendo Co.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons has sold more than 26 million copies since its March release, making it the most popular version of the series to date.
Read more
▲Nintendo
Anthony Fauci
Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Sixty-four percent of Americans have said his handling of the coronavirus outbreak is “good” or “excellent,” according to an October Morning Consult/Politico poll; politicians on both sides of the aisle have failed to break 50%.
Read more▲Jeremy Liebman for Bloomberg Businessweek
Daniel Leal Olivas/Getty Images
Marcus Rashford
Forward, Manchester United Football Club
His Twitter campaign helped shame the U.K. government into providing free school meals to more than 1.5 million children from low-wage families.
Read more
Tyrone Siu/Reuters
Tsai Ing-wen
President, Taiwan
Taiwan went more than 200 days without a locally transmitted Covid-19 case after Tsai’s administration instituted one of the world’s most effective pandemic-response protocols.
Read more
Anthony Kwan/Bloomberg
Changpeng Zhao
Co-founder, Binance Holdings Ltd.
Zhao says he expects Binance to have profits of $800 million to $1 billion this year, up from about $570 million last year, as market uncertainty pushes traders into digital coins.
Read moreThe Usual Suspects
Putting certain names on the Bloomberg 50 wouldn’t surprise anyone, so we gave the most predictably notable people their own list.
● William Barr, U.S. attorney general ● Amy Coney Barrett, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court ● Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon.com Inc. ● Joe Biden, president-elect of the U.S. ● Jair Bolsonaro, president of Brazil ● Sergey Brin, co-director, Alphabet Inc. ● Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. ● Tim Cook, CEO, Apple Inc. ● Pope Francis ● LeBron James, Forward, Los Angeles Lakers ● Boris Johnson, prime minister of the U.K. ● Kim Jong Un, supreme leader of North Korea ● Emmanuel Macron, president of France ● Mitch McConnell, majority leader of the U.S. Senate ● Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany ● Narendra Modi, prime minister of India ● Rupert Murdoch, co-chairman, Fox Corp. ● Elon Musk, CEO, Tesla Inc. and SpaceX ● Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, member of the U.S. House of Representatives ● Larry Page, co-director, Alphabet ● Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives ● Vladimir Putin, president of Russia ● Masayoshi Son, CEO, SoftBank Group Corp. ● Donald Trump, president of the U.S. ● Xi Jinping, president of the People’s Republic of China ● Mark Zuckerberg, chairman and CEO, Facebook Inc.
Ones to Watch
Check back in a year, and you may see some of these people as part of the 50.
Paul Isaac Musasizi
CEO, Kiira Motors Corp., Kampala, Uganda
The engineer is building Africa’s first electric bus factory and aims to have initial manufacturing capacity of 5,000 vehicles a year. Prototypes are already running as government shuttle buses.
Geoffrey von Maltzahn
Co-founder, Indigo Ag Inc., Boston
Von Maltzahn wants companies to reduce their carbon footprint. He’s won commitments from Shopify, Barclays, and JPMorgan Chase to buy credits that pay farmers for environmentally friendly practices.
Sojin Lee
CEO, Toshi Technologies Ltd., London
Brands including Chanel, Christian Louboutin, and Anna Sui are working with the former Net-a-Porter exec, whose company hand delivers clothing—then handles alterations and returns. Toshi also services New York and plans to open in Los Angeles next year.
Maya Erskine & Anna Konkle
Co-creators and stars, PEN15
The duo behind the Hulu comedy series were nominated for a writing Emmy for their show about best friends going through the awkward years of middle school in the 2000s—from getting their first AOL Instant Messenger screen names to practicing for Spice Girls-themed school projects.
Ziwe Fumudoh
Comedian and writer, Desus & Mero
Her uncomfortable but funny Instagram Live conversations on race with celebrities such as Alyssa Milano led to a Showtime slot.
Kwame Onwuachi
Chef and author
He shuttered his Afro-Caribbean restaurant Kith and Kin in Washington, D.C., during the pandemic, but he’ll be a judge on Top Chef, and his memoir, Notes From a Young Black Chef, is being made into a movie.
Tia Adeola
Fashion designer
The Nigerian-born designer made big ruffles stylish. Instagram influencers and young musicians such as R&B artist Ebhoni have worn her clothes. And her frilly face masks have been on the pages of Teen Vogue, Self, and Marie Claire.
Nathan Tankus
Writer, Notes on the Crises
The 29-year-old Tankus, who hasn’t finished his bachelor’s degree, became a must-read for Wall Street economists and government officials thanks to his analysis of the Federal Reserve.
Jennifer O’Neil
Managing director, BlackRock Inc., New York
This summer she helped restructure the debt of Ecuador and Argentina, the latter of which struck a $65 billion deal with private creditors.
Bart Staszewski
Filmmaker and gay rights activist
He staged protests in Polish towns that had declared themselves free of “LGBT ideology.” The campaign gained international attention, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen of Germany using her first state of the union speech to denounce anti-gay policies.
Arnon Nampa
Human rights lawyer
The protest leader was jailed many times this year while heading a movement calling for more transparency and accountability from the monarchy in Thailand, where criticism of royals is punishable by 15 years in prison.
Katie Porter
Congresswoman
The first-term California representative has gone viral with tough questions for business leaders such as former Celgene Corp. CEO Mark Alles over cancer drug costs.
Tylik McMillan
National Director of Youth and College at the National Action Network, New York
The recent college grad helped organize the March on Washington in August, which drew thousands of people to protest police brutality against Black people.
Varshini Prakash
Co-founder, Sunrise Movement, Washington, D.C.
The Boston-based activist has rallied youth voters and worked to elect politicians who take a tougher stance on the fossil fuel industry. Her recent book, Winning the Green New Deal, argues for radical action to stop global warming.
Pushmeet Kohli
Head of AI for Science, Google’s DeepMind, London
He’s using neural networks and other machine-learning techniques to predict the structure of proteins; this has implications for treating rare diseases, breaking down pollutants, and more.
Sara Menker
CEO, Gro Intelligence Inc., New York
Her data platform lets food companies and governments map supply and demand across commodities. When the biggest locust swarm in decades threatened crops in East Africa this year, Gro provided free monitoring tools to track the spread and damage.
Robert Vis
Founder, MessageBird, Amsterdam
His software lets companies use a single interface to talk to customers by text, email, or social media. MessageBird is gearing up for an initial public offering next year.
Rishi Sunak
Chancellor of the Exchequer, U.K.
Sunak won high approval ratings with generous programs to help workers and businesses during the pandemic. Now comes the trickier part: winding down the support and paying for it all. — Lynn Thomasson
The Alums
Since the first Bloomberg 50 in 2017, we’ve had a rule: no repeats. But we couldn't overlook a few past honorees’ 2020 accomplishments.
Stacey Abrams
Founder, Fair Fight, Fair Fight Action, and Fair Count, Atlanta (Bloomberg 50, 2019)
Her network of organizations highlighting voter suppression and promoting fair elections is credited with helping inspire about 800,000 registrations in Georgia. Joe Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state since 1992. (Donors to Abrams’s organizations include Michael Bloomberg, owner of Bloomberg LP, Bloomberg Businessweek’s parent company.)
Mukesh Ambani
Chairman, Reliance Industries Ltd., Mumbai (2018)
Asia’s richest man persuaded Facebook, Google, and private equity funds to inject more than $20 billion into Jio Platforms, the technology arm of his conglomerate, making him one of the 10 wealthiest people in the world—and setting the stage for a clash with Amazon .com for dominance of India’s e-commerce market.
José Andrés
Founder, World Central Kitchen, Washington (2018)
Throughout the pandemic, World Central’s #ChefsForAmerica initiative has provided people in need with more than 30 million meals in 400-plus cities.
Jacinda Ardern
Prime minister, New Zealand (2019)
Life is back to something like normal for the country’s 5 million people, which helps explain why she was overwhelmingly reelected on Oct. 17. Ardern locked down New Zealand early, keeping infections below 2,000 and suffering just over two dozen deaths.
Mary Barra
Chairman and CEO, General Motors Co., Detroit (2017)
To fulfill a $490 million U.S. government contract, Barra directed GM engineers to transform an automotive electronics plant in Kokomo, Ind., into an assembly line for ventilators. By September the company had used previously furloughed workers to produce and deliver 30,000 machines.
Kenneth Frazier
CEO, Merck & Co., Kenilworth, N.J. (2017)
Frazier is guiding scientists as they test candidates for a one-shot coronavirus vaccine. He also drew attention to the opportunity gap facing minorities. “I don’t think I have a choice” but to act as a role model, Frazier, one of only four Black CEOs at Fortune 500 companies, told Bloomberg TV in July.
Tobias Lütke
CEO, Shopify Inc., Ottawa (2019)
Shopify became Canada’s most valuable company in 2020, its systems underpinning the explosive growth of online retail for non-Amazon transactions as much of America sheltered at home.
Jerome Powell
Chairman, U.S. Federal Reserve (2018)
Powell oversaw two March cuts that took the Fed’s key interest rate to almost zero and unveiled a program of bond purchasing and other measures that topped an estimated $3 trillion. It all added up to the most aggressive stimulus package in Fed history.
Cathie Wood
CEO, ARK Investment Management LLC, New York (2018)
Tech companies led the post-March stock rally, and Wood’s bullish bets on the ones shaping the future—Tesla, Crispr Therapeutics, and Slack, for example—saw her ARK Innovation exchange-traded fund double in value this year. Her Ark Genomic Revolution ETF is performing even better.
Eric Yuan
CEO, Zoom Video Communications Inc., San Jose (2019)
The videoconferencing platform became critical infrastructure as offices went remote. Zoom’s stock price is up more than 500%, swelling Yuan’s fortune to $20 billion. —Adam Blenford
Corrects the era that PEN15 is set in.