The 100 Most Influential Leaders in Marketing, Media and Tech

Presenting Adweek's inaugural Power List, our ranking of the 100 most influential, innovative and effective leaders controlling media, marketing and technology. To assemble this list, we considered the profiles and results of corporate titans, taking into account such criteria as the value of company assets, revenue and revenue growth, consumer reach and affinity, market performance, standing among rivals, employees overseen, key acquisitions and partnerships, and industry accolades and media buzz. Agency chieftains, tech titans, media execs and the CEOs of top brand marketers populate the universe we cover day to day—and the top of the top are represented here.

1. Larry Page 

CEO, co-founder, Google

Revenue: $66 billion

Employees: 53,600 

Larry Page Photo: James Leynse/Corbis

Larry Page opened a new window into the Information Age 17 years ago when he and Sergey Brin formed Google, revolutionizing the way practically every human being accesses information. Of course, Google has grown far beyond search. It is one of the most powerful corporations on the planet— and Page, 42, is the principal architect of that success.

"Larry will be known as a person who is relentless in driving his company to take advantage of the unprecedented opportunities that come from the explosion of tech," says Steven Levy, author of In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works and Shapes Our Lives. "He takes a long view when many others fret about the short term."

Page has actually served two terms as CEO, serving as president of products during Eric Schmidt's decade-long run as chief executive. Since Page returned to the top job in 2011, Google's market cap has nearly doubled to $370 billion, as profits soared to $14.4 billion (up from $8.5 billion at the time Schmidt slid into the chairman role). "Larry helped build a company that made a huge difference in how we behave," says Levy, "and if some of his big bets pay off, search won't be the only big difference Google makes.

Google's ubiquity is astonishing. From Android to Chromebooks, from AdWords to Maps and so much more, there's virtually no corner of technology, media and advertising in which Google is not a player. "We want to build technology that everybody loves using, and that affects everyone," Page has said. "We want to create beautiful, intuitive services and technologies that are so incredibly useful that people use them twice a day. Like they use a toothbrush. There aren't that many things people use twice a day."

An intense, driven personality, Page wants to provide big products and services that have global impact. He continues to broaden Google's horizons, developing self-driving cars, drones (Project Wing) and super-fast connectivity (Google Fiber).

Yes, there have been glitches. The Google+ social network never clicked, Google Glass' future seems foggy, and the company has come under increased pressure in Europe over privacy concerns. Even so, the transcendent power of the company is indisputable. It has, in short, become an essential thread in the fabric of modern life.

"Lots of companies don't succeed over time," Page once said. "What do they fundamentally do wrong? They usually miss the future. I try to focus on that: What is the future really going to be? And how do we create it? And how do we power our organization to really focus on that and really drive it at a high rate?"

2. Tim Cook

CEO, Apple

Revenue: $182.8 billion

Employees: 98,000

Cook, 54, followed the legendary Steve Jobs—and he's well on his way to becoming as big a legend. In nearly four years at the helm, Apple doubled its market capitalization, becoming the first U.S. company to hit $700 billion. Its financials routinely set records, including Q1 earnings of $18 billion, the most for any company in a single quarter ever. Q2 sales of 61.2 million iPhones "blew away even the most bullish forecasts," reported CNN Money—and 1 million consumers in the U.S. alone pre-ordered the Apple Watch on its first day of availability. Clearly, Cook has built on Jobs' facility to fuel broad cultural trends. What's more, the openly gay CEO took to The Washington Post's op-ed page in March to warn against pending "religious freedom" legislation in various states that could result in discrimination against the LGBT community.

3. Mark Zuckerberg

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