The list includes pop culture giants such as Justin Bieber and Oprah Winfrey plus the lesser known Wael Ghonim, an Egyptian Internet activist who helped topple President Hosni Mubarak, and Takeshi Kanno, a Japanese doctor who refused to leave behind victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. “We’ve always, always tried to tell stories through people. ... We discovered it was a fantastic way to get people to think about what’s going on all over the world,” said Time Deputy Managing Editor Michael Elliott. The complete list can be seen on http://www.time.com. World leaders such as British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff populate the list for how they have wielded power. “The first time I met David Cameron, I knew we were political soul mates,” actor and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wrote in a profile for Time, calling him “a centrist who avoids the gutters of politics.” From the world of sport, Argentina soccer phenomenon Lionel Messi was joined by Indian cricket star Mahendra Singh Dhoni, whose charisma and leadership united an ethnically diverse team that won the World Cup.
