Skip to main content
As happens this time of year, publishers list their most important/influential/etc. youngsters.  As an example, the May issue of Wired has “20 Unsung Geniuses”.  We think mature adults deserve recognition just as much as 20-something billionaires.  Here is our Sixty Over Sixty list of the most influential, annoying, important or folks we just find interesting.  Here then, sorted by age, is The Sixty Most Important Leaders Over Sixty.

Henry Kissinger.  Still the U.S. best thinker on foreign policy and diplomacy. His recently published book (at age 91) World Order is not only a best seller, it is extraorinary.
Jimmy Carter.  Better as an ex-President than President.  His work for Habitat for Humanity is a lesson for all of us.
T. Boone Pickens.  Oilman, energy expert.  Creator of The Pickens Plan for energy independence.
Frank Gehry.  Showing the world what new materials and CAD design can do to architecture.
Warren Bufett. Best investor in history.  Becoming one of the best philanthropists in history.
Alan Simpson.  Former Senator who, along with Bowles (below) is trying to get U.S. to fiscal sanity.
Diane Feinstein.  Influential Sr. Senator from CA.
Jack Welch. Executive, author, educator
Carl Icahn.  Activist investor.
Anthony Kennedy.  Supreme Court Justice
Jack Nicholson.  Actor
Freeman Morgan.  Actor.  “Through the Wormhole” commentator.
Yvon Chouinard. Founder of Patagonia, environmental activist and enemy of dams.
Ralph Lauren.  Fashion industry titan.
Harry Reid.  Senate Minority Leader.
Toby Cosgrove.  MD and President of The Cleveland Clinic.
Nancy Pelosi.  House Minority Leader.
William Koch.  Billionaire businessman and Libertarian.
Roger Ailes.  Founder of Fox News.
Don Imus. Radio personality, philanthropist, professional curmudgeon.
Martha Stewart.  Fashion arbiter, CEO of Martha Stewart Omnimedia.
Michael Bloomberg.  Former Mayor of NYC; eponymous founder of Bloomberg.
Mitch McConnell.  Senate Majority Leader.
Aretha Franklin.  Soul and R&B singer.
Joe Biden.  VP of the U.S.
Jerry Bruckheimer.  Co-creator of CSI, Cold Case, many others.
Joyce Meyer. Evangelist and author.
George Lucas. Motion picture producer and director; world builder.
Larry Ellison.  Founder of Oracle.
Lorne Michaels.  Founder of Saturday Night Live.
Erskine Bowles.  Co-leader of Simpson Bowles Committee. Prophet.
Harold Hamm.  Founder & CEO of Continental Resources, shale/fracking leader.
Dolly Parton.  Singer, songwriter, entrepreneur
Roger Altman. Founder-Evercore. Democratic kingmaker.
Cher Sarkisian.  Singer and entertainer.
Janet Yellen.  President-Federal Reserve Bank; arguably the world’s most powerful woman.
Bill Clinton.  Former President.  Co-founder of Clinton Global Initiative.
Stephen Spielberg.  Motion picture producer and director.
Dick Wolfe.  Co-creator of Law & Order franchise.
James Rothman.  Yale Professor of Biomedical Science; Nobel Prize Winner.
Mike Krzyzewski. Aruguably the finest men’s college basketball coach ever.
Hillary Clinton.  Former Senator, former Secretary of State, Presidential candidate.
Dick Parsons. Former CEO of Citibank, former CEO of Time-Warner, advisor to Providence Equity.
Randy Schekman. California University Cell Biologist; Nobel Prize Winner.
David Rubenstein.  CEO of private equity firm Carlyle.
Bruce Springsteen.  Singer and songwriter.
Timothy Dolan.  Cardinal of NY.
Francis Collins.  Director, National Institute of Health.
Chuck Schumer.  Sr. Senator from NY.
Rush Limbaugh. Talk show host; most influential conservative.
Bob Iger.  Chairman & CEO: Disney.
John Noseworthy.  CEO of The Mayo Clinic.
Danielle Steele.  Top ten best-selling author of all time.
Maureen Dowd.  Influential NY Times editorialist.
Martin Dempsey.  General-U.S. Army. Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
Bill Belichick. New England Patriots head coach. Probably the best pro football coach ever.
Howard Schultz.  Founder and CEO of Starbucks
John Mackey. Co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market
Oprah Winfrey. Talk show host and most powerful woman in media
Carly Fiorina. Presidential Candidate


There were many other excellent choices, and my selection is largely arbitrary.  But I welcome your suggestions for additions (please don’t bother with deletions) and will consider them for my next update.  Post your comment here, or email gene@jobsoverfifty.

Gene Morphis

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Reasons We Think America is On the Wrong Course

I was listening to the Michael Medved show yesterday. He does a nice job at talk radio. But he was worked up because the CBS News Poll showed that 72% of Americans surveyed think the U.S. is on the wrong track. (When I went to CBS' site, it looks to me like the number is 69%, but that's an insignicant difference). Medved's view is that income for the poorest citizens are rising (recent government data), unemployment is low, stock market is high, no cold war, so why so pessimistic? Here are my answers: Several of our young men and women are being killed every day in a war that we are getting sick of. The deficit is some unimaginable, staggering number that my generation is imposing on my children. Social Security is bankrupt and both Congress and the Administration (both previous and current, and both Republican and Democratic) are unwilling to face the issue. There are virulent infectious agents in hospitals that are resistent to essentially all antibiotics, and the drug co...
2 comments
Read more

Stimulus Plan

Mr. President: The House stimulus bill is awful. Dangerous. Counter-productive. It has a very high probability of making things worse!. Your man Rahm Emanuel is supposed to be a tough guy: turn him loose on the House Dems - they are selling you down the river. Some simple tests: the spending will improve long-term productivity; the spending will reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and the spending will happen fast; very, very fast. There may need to be some legislation to enable spending without years of environmental review. For example, spending on wind farms would improve long-run productivity and reduce dependence on foreign oil. But let's say the wind farm is a couple of miles offshore. You can't have environmental groups stopping the development to see if some fish will be harmed. This spending has to happen now. And, no tax cuts with the possible exception of AMT. People aren't going to spend any tax savings; they are going to pay their credit card bills or r...
10 comments
Read more

Book Review: What Matters Now by Gary Hamel

Interview of Eric Schmidt by Gary Hamel at the MLab dinner tonight. Google's Marissa Mayer and Hal Varian also joined the open dialog about Google's culture and management style, from chaos to arrogance. The video just went up on YouTube. It's quite entertaining. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Cover of The Future of Management My list of must-read business writers continues to expand.   Gary Hamel , however, author of What Matters Now , with the very long subtitle of How to Win in a World of Relentless Change, Ferocious Competition, and Unstoppable Innovation , has been on the list for quite some time.   Continuing his thesis on the need for a new approach to management introduced in his prior book The Future of Management , Hamel calls for a complete rethinking of how enterprises are run. Fundamental to his recommendation is that the practice of management is ossified in a command and control system that is now generations old and needs to be replaced with somethi...
1 comment
Read more