Top 10 people of the People (Influencers) of the Decade

This is a continuation of the "Top 10" lists of the decade. The earlier posts are:

• Top Technology Disruptions
• Top Business News
• Top US News
• Top World News
• Top Medicine / Healthcare News

Here are the top 10 People of the last decade. Note: If the personality is already included in another list, they are not repeated here. For example, Barack Obama, Narendra Modi or Pope Francis would not be on this list. While the list has a predominant focus on Technology and Silicon Valley, it is not influenced by my bias. I truly believe these people were the top influencers of the last decade.

1. Steve Jobs. He died in October 2011. He is the pioneer of the personal computer. He is considered a visionary and genius. He oversaw the launch of revolutionary products like the iPod and iPhone. He literally brought the company from the brink of extinction to its current position of among the Most valuable companies int the world.

2. Satya Nadella. He was appointed Microsoft CEO when the company was teetering and the technology was shifting towards purchasing "best of breed" and cloud services. Nadella masterfully maneuvered the Microsoft ship in the direction of cooperation with the intent of solving customer pain points. Today, Microsoft is among the Top 5 most valuable companies in the world.

3. Sundar Pichai. He became CEO of Google (one of the world's top 5 brands and among the most admired companies in the world) in 2015. He navigated the company through turbulent times: fines for anti-trust violations in the EU; congressional hearings; workers protesting over a US military project; developing a censored version of its search engine for China. In 2019, he was named the CEO of the parent company, Alphabet.

4. Jeff Bezos. Amazon was founded and was thriving before this decade. However, it was in this decade that it grew to be among the Top 5 most valuable companies in the world. Here is one of the quotes attributed to him, "I didn't think I'd regret trying and failing. I suspected I would always be haunted to a decision not to try at all." 

5. Elon Musk. Any entrepreneur's dream is to have their startup become a "unicorn" (has a valuation of over a billion dollars). Elon Musk is a rare breed to have multiple unicorns: PayPal (which he sold to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002); SpaceX (with a valuation of $33b) and Tesla (with a valuation of $77b). He is constantly proposing big, bold dreams: ideas to change the world. These include Hyperloop (that could blast passenger-packed pods through long tubes at 760 mph, using energy derived from the Sun); colonizing Mars (that could, one day, support 80,000+ people); renewable energy.

6. Rose McGowan. Even though the #MeToo movement was mentioned in the Top US News of the decade post, it was Rose's public accusation of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault that spawned the "MeToo" movement. Her voice led to what is now a historic reckoning that is sweeping not just the film industry, but other industries too.

7. Jack Ma. As the Chairman of Alibaba Group, he has grown it to become Asia's most valuable listed company - employing over 100,000 people. The Jack Ma foundation is among the Top 10 philanthropic organizations in the world.

8. Malala Yousafzai. She is a Pakistani education advocate, who at the age of 17 (in 2014) became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban. Nine months after being shot by the Taliban, she gave a speech at the United Nations where she highlighted her focus on education and women's rights and urged the world leaders to change their policies.

9. Edward Snowden. A former National Security Agency subcontractor who leaked top-secret information about NSA surveillance activities. In the eyes of the US Government, he is a convicted felon. He makes this list because he sparked an overdue debate on national security and individual privacy; the "Snowden Effect" has had an impact on the technology industry and consumer products (improved security); he has emboldened more whistleblowers to come forward - including the one that resulted in Trump getting impeached by the Congress.

10. Travis Kalanick. I wrestled with this the most. He is said to have allowed a culture of bullying and harassment toward women to fester. Then there was the intellectual property lawsuit with Alphabet over self-driving cars. Nevertheless, he was responsible for spawning the sharing economy - where technology is used to share excess capacity to just about anyone, anytime, anywhere. 

Top 10 Medicine / HealthCare News of the last Decade

This is a continuation of the "Top 10" lists of the decade. The earlier posts are:

• Top Technology Disruptions
• Top Business News
• Top US News
• Top World News

Here are the top Medicine / HealthCare News of the last Decade:

1. Affordable Care Act. Access to healthcare is as important to advancement in healthcare. The largest legacy left by President Obama was the passing of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). It was signed into law in March 2010. It mandates that everyone gets health insurance and provided consumers with subsidies ("premium tax credits")

2. HealthCare Technology. Faster handheld computing systems and Electronic Health Records (EHR) has revolutionized patient care and access to health information. There are several examples where technology assist physicians: Augmented Reality helps brain surgeons blend digital imagery with the physical world allowing them to see deeper and reduce errors; Computer monitoring in hospitals help identify and address preventable mistakes; AI Tools help the blind tackle every day tasks; etc.

3. Gene sequencing. While the first whole genome was sequenced in 2000, we are seeing a revolution in genome sequencing (revealing the order of bases present in the entire genome of an organism. Note: The human genome contains about 3 billion base pairs that spell the instructions for making and maintaining a human being) with dramatic increases in speed coupled with massive reductions in cost. It has proved its usefulness as a diagnostic and prognostic tool.

4. Gene editing. Genome editing is the deliberate alteration of a selected DNS sequence in a living cell. This is done by cutting a stand of DNA at a specific point and allowing naturally existing cellular repair mechanisms to fix the broken DNA strands. One key technology for gene editing (discovered in 2012) is a molecular tool known an CRISPR-Cas9 (Clustered Regularly Interspaces Short Palindromic Repeats). Researchers believe that CRISPR could revolutionize how they prevent and treat many diseases.

5. Stem Cell Research. Definition: Embryonic stem cells have the potential to develop into any part of the body. As an embryo grows, most cells become specialized. This means they change into a specific part of the body, such as heart muscle cells, red blood cells or liver cells. While the first human embryonic stem cells were grown in a laboratory dish (in vitro) as early as 1998, researchers are now able to scale up the generation of red blood cells from stem cells to make a limitless supply of clean blood for transfusion. Since stem cells can be guided into becoming specific cells, they can be used to regenerate and repair diseased or damaged tissue.

6. Robotic Surgery. This allows doctors to perform complex procedures with more precision, flexibility and control than possible using conventional techniques.  It is a "minimally invasive" surgery - meaning that instead of operating with large incisions, the miniaturized surgical instruments used fit through quarter-inch incisions. Again, while we have had robotic surgery for many years, advances in robotic surgery range from the development of more accurate planning tools and software, to increased automation of tasks during surgery.

7. 3D Printing. Human organs have been artificially built using 3D printing procedures for planned organ substitution. While the first human blood vessels were 3D bio-printed in 2009, in the last decade we have seen advancement in 3D printing technology that enable production of bones, ears, exoskeletons, windpipes, blood vessels, vascular networks, tissues and simple organs. We are not quite at the point where the human heart can be 3D printed. This day is not too far away.

Top World News from the last Decade

This is a continuation of the "Top 10" lists of the decade. The earlier posts are:

• Top Technology Disruptions
• Top Business News
• Top US News

Here are the top World News for the last decade:

1. Brexit. In June 2016, the British people voted for Britain to leave the European Union after a historic referendum in which they rejected the advice of the main Westminster party leaders. Instead they opted to take a plunge into the political unknown.

2. Narendra Modi. He took office in 2014. Since then, Modi has attempted to improve efficiency in the bureaucracy; centralized power by abolishing the Planning Commission. He began a high profile sanitation campaign and initiated the demonetization of high-denomination banknotes. His party received a landslide victory in May 2019 and was re-elected. He has, since then, revoked Article 370 of the Indian Constitution - which granted Kashmir special status.

3. Prince William and Kate Middleton. In April 2011, 3 billion people tuned in to watch the wedding in Westminster Church in London.  Given that almost 40% of the world's population watched the event, it had to be among the top news of the decade.

4. Russian invasion of Ukraine. In March 2014, Ukraine's pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, was toppled in anti-government protests. Subsequently, Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea.

5. Hong Kong Protests. In April 2019, the Chinese Government introduced an extradition bill that would have allowed criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China under certain circumstanced. Opponents were concerned that this risked unfair trials and violent treatment and could be used to target activists and journalists.

6. Pope Francis. In March 2013, Pope Benedict XVI abdicated - becoming the first pope to voluntarily resign since Celestine V in 1294. Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected Pope, becoming the first South American to lead the Roman Catholic Church. He assumed the name of Pope Francis 

7. Muammar Gadaffi. The deposed Libyan leader was captured and killed on October 2011 by revolutionaries - ending his 42-year regime during which time his authoritarian administration violated human rights and financed global terrorism.

Top US News from the last decade

This is a continuation of the "Top 10" lists of the decade. The earlier posts are:

• Top Technology Disruptions
• Top Business News

Here are the top US News for the last decade:

1. The Obama Presidency. Barack Obama took office on Jan 2009 and remained in office for most of this last decade (until Jan 2017). His major accomplishments include passing the healthcare reform, saving the Auto Industry, instituting sweeping legislations to reform the financial industry, raised fuel efficiency standards, and much more

2. Elimination of Osama bin Laden. The founder and first leader of Al-Qaeda was eliminated on May 2011 by United States Navy SEALs. He was the mastermind of the attacks on 9/11 and prompted the United States to initiate the War on Terror.

3. LGBT rights. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) is a social movement that advocates full acceptance of LGBT people in society. In June 2015, the US Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage cannot be prohibited by a state.

4. MeToo movement. This is a movement against sexual harassment and sexual assault. While the term was coined in 2006 (on MySpace) by Tarana Burke, it developed into a broader "movement" following the 2017 use of #MeToo as a hashtag during the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations.

5. US Withdrawal from Paris Climate Accord. The US is the only country that will not participate in the pact. This is even while global temperatures are set to rise 3C and worsening extreme weather will drive millions into poverty. The reasons provided for withdrawing from the accord is due to the "unfair economic burden imposed on American workers, businesses and taxpayers."

6. Trump Presidency. Whether or not Donald Trump gets impeached by the Senate, his Presidency has been a disaster. While the tradition of past American Presidents has been to seek unity, he has willfully indulged in a politics of division. He has insulted and alienated our friends and allies while cozying up to right-wing nationalist autocrats and dictators. The White House is now viewed as dishonest and providing misinformation (stating verifiable falsehoods), while we would expect the opposite - of promoting policies based on reality. The Office of the President is demeaned by his using foul, angry language. His tweets attack his critics while stoking fear and outrage among his supporters. Even teenager and Time Magazine Person Of the Year, Greta Thunberg, was not spared from his venom.

Top Business News from the last decade

This is a continuation of the "Top 10" lists of the decade. The earlier posts are:

• Top Technology Disruptions

Here are the top Business News from the last decade:

1. China is easily the top business news of the last decade. In 2015 China emerged as the world's largest economy - on the basis of purchasing power parity. In the last few years the trade war between the US and China has escalated. 

2. Cryptocurrency. This is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange. It uses strong cryptography to secure financial transactions; control the creation of additional units; and verify the transfer of assets. All this is done using Blockchain technology. Bitcoin is the first decentralized cryptocurrency. The price of Bitcoin skyrocketed from under $800 in late 2016 to an all-time high of $19,783 in  December 2017. The crypto bubble burst in early 2018, but Bitcoin still finished the decade with a global market cap of more than $140b. 

3. Longest Bull Market run. The decade began with the remnants of the great recession of 2008 and the scariest financial crisis since the 1930s. A slow, but steady economic recovery, coupled with unprecedented aid from the Federal Reserve, catapulted the Dow from 6,500 to the 28,500 today. The S&P is almost at 5x from the low of 666 in 2009.

4. FinTech. The last decade has seen more progress in Finance Technology than the past hundred years. Huge global banks like Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and CitiGroup are now big FinTech investors. Artificial Intelligence and advanced high-frequency trading algorithms have become a central part of investment banking. The emergence of trading apps like Robinhood, mobile payment apps like Venmo provide unprecedented banking services from the Smartphone. 

5. Greek Economy. It suffered the longest recession of any advanced capitalist economy to date. The crisis led to the loss of confidence in the Greek economy. The government enacted 12 rounds of tax increases, spending cuts and reforms from 2010 to 2016.

6. Debt Ceiling. In 2011, the Republican-controlled House demanded spending concessions from then President Obama before they would agree to raise the debt ceiling. The credit-rating agency Standard & Poor downgraded its US credit rating for the first time in history, dropping it from AAA to AA+.

7. Oil price collapse. In the previous decade, Oil prices rose significantly - attributed rising oil demand in India and China. In the middle of 2014, Oil prices started declining -  attributed to significant increase in oil production in the US (thanks to fracking), and the declining demand from emerging countries.

8. Merger of AT&T and Time Warner. This $108b merger (completed in 2018) is significant because AT&T owns the infrastructure to deliver content. Time Warner owns content producers, studios, and networks like HBO that create content. The combined company would benefit from being vertically integrated. 

Top 10 Lists for the Decade

As the 2010-2019 decade draws to a close, I will post (over the next 10 days - with a break on Christmas Day) a "Top 10" list on each of the following topics:

1. Technology Disruptions (Later in this post)
2. Business
3. US News
4. World News
5. Medicine / HealthCare
6. People (Influencers)
7. Sports
8. Movies
9. Music
10. Tragedies / Disasters

Here are my Top Technology Disruptions in the last decade:

1. SmartPhones - While the Smartphone existed in 2010, we continued to rely on multiple gadgets. Today, we have all these gadgets rolled into one.

2. Cloud, Data and AI - Computing has grown to become a utility over the last decade. Along with Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, these behind-the-scenes technologies power so many tasks that we do today.

3. Streaming - Netflix (app launched in 2010), Hulu and Amazon Prime have changed the face of entertainment. The $64m question is did bigger phone screens help Netflix become popular or was Netflix the reason why our phone screens got bigger?

4. Virtual Assistants - today it is common for 3-year old kids using their voice to command devices to play music. Between Siri, Alexa and Google, we can get the news, sports and weather using our voice.

5. Sharing Economy - Today, Airbnb has more room listings that all of the available rooms of the world's top five hotel chains combined. Uber (launched in 2010) was the first app to truly take advantage of faster cellular networks and improved location services on a SmartPhone

6. Autonomous Vehicles - Tesla led the way by turning the Model S into a self-driving vehicle by downloading an "upgrade". Talk about the mother of all in-app purchases! 

7. Wearables - Fitbit, Garmin and Apple made fitness tracking devices.  They helped us boost our daily activity by meeting goals for steps taken, tracking the amount and quality of sleep. They are moving towards mainstream MedicalCare as well.

8. Edge Computing - With the advent of 4G Networks (especially 4G LTE), SmartPhones no longer needed to be tethered to WiFi networks to be useful. With 5G offering a 10x to 100x improvement over 4G, the next decade promises to be exciting!