The 100 Most Influential People in the World 2017
Our annual list of the 100 Most Influential People explores the intersection of accomplishment and renown. As in years past, this year's list includes Presidents and Prime Ministers, CEOs and celebrities  but they are joined by others of less fame but great force, in the power of their inventions, the scale of their ambitions, the genius of their solutions to problems that no one before them could solve. Some years the list has the feel of a loose, lively dinner party, people who mostly don't know one another but would get along if they did. This year is a bit more complicated. These past 12 months have sharpened our edges as political debates in the U.S. and Europe, the Middle East and Asia, turned jagged and primal and seem almost perfectly designed to divide us more deeply. The list includes active opponentsnot only U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un but also the Philippines' President Rodrigo Duterte and his nemesis Senator Leila de Lima, whose denunciation of Duterte's bloody crusade against drug dealers has landed her in prison. And there are several people on the list whose influence is the subject of heated debate, from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to FBI Director James Comey to White House adviser Stephen Bannon. Each has champions and critics all are shaping the course of this turbulent year. In divisive times, it's tempting to nestle in a comfort zone, surrounded by people who look like us, think like us, pray like us, vote like us. Yet many of the men and women on this year's list are calling us out, using the technologies that connect us to expand how we see the world. The youngest, Gavin Grimm, 17, took the risk of speaking out about the most impossibly personal subject  what bathrooms we use  in order to assert the rights of transgender people all the way to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, the oldest, former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, 87, used her platform to create a new one, iCivics, to teach students to become active citizens it reaches half of all middle school social-studies classrooms in the country. Every year new themes emerge. This year, I am struck by how many people on the list  from Kaiser Permanente CEO Bernard J. Tyson to singer Demi Lovato to Broadway star Ben Platt  have made mental health a special focus of their work. Likewise, the ongoing refugee crisis has inspired heroic efforts by everyone from Raed Saleh, leader of the Syrian White Helmets, to Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya, founder of the Tent initiative, to actor Riz Ahmed and singer Alicia Keys. Some challenges are best explained by those who have shared them, so we asked Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, chief of staff to President Obama, to write about Trump's chief, Reince Priebus. New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English writes on British PM Theresa May and a former U.S. Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, writes about current Defense Secretary James Mattis. In making the list, we seek counsel from the TIME 100 alumni, many of whom contributed to this issue. Common writes on Chance the Rapper, who was inspired by a phone message Common left him long ago. Tina Fey offers a tribute to Donald Glover Meryl Streep to Viola Davis and Sheryl Sandberg to Melinda Gates. In a typical TIME 100 chain reaction, author Colson Whitehead is on the list for his Pulitzer Prizewinning novel, The Underground Railroad, which is being adapted for TV by Moonlight director Barry Jenkins, who is both on the list and author of the profile of filmmaker Jordan Peele. This issue was designed by Carrie Gee, with photo direction by Tara Johnson. Miles Aldridge shot the five cover portraits. The project was overseen for the first time by assistant managing editor Dan Macsai. "It's not every day you're working with writers like Taylor Swift, Tim Cook and Mikhail Gorbachev," he says. "But that's what's so great about the TIME 100. It's not just a list of the world's most influential people  it's a conversation among them.", Watch The It List Time's The 100 Most Influential People' available now on People/Entertainment Weekly Network PEN. Go to PEOPLE.com/PEN, or download the PEN app on streaming devices. Barbara Lynch by Padma Lakshmi Bob Ferguson by George Takei Celina Turchi by Tom Frieden Chance The Rapper by Common Conor McGregor by Arnold Schwarzenegger Constance Wu by Lena Dunham Demis Hassabis by Ray Kurzweil Gavin Grimm by Janet Mock Glenda Gray by Alice Park Guus Velders by Leonardo DiCaprio Hamdi Ulukaya by Kenneth Roth Ivanka Trump by Wendi Murdoch Jared Kushner by Henry Kissinger Jordan Peele by Barry Jenkins Kirsten Green by Emily Weiss Natalie Batalha, Guillem Anglada-Escud and Michal Gillon by Alan Stern Riz Ahmed by Lin-Manuel Miranda Samantha Bee by Jane Curtin Tamika Mallory, Bob Bland, Carmen Perez and Linda Sarsour by Kirsten Gillibrand Yuriko Koike by Anne Hidalgo, Alessandro Michele by Jared Leto Alicia Keys by Kerry Washington Ava DuVernay by Venus Williams Barry Jenkins by Kathryn Bigelow Ben Platt by Zac Efron Colson Whitehead by Oprah Winfrey Demi Lovato by Arianna Huffington Donald Glover by Tina Fey Ed Sheeran by Taylor Swift Emma Stone by Brie Larson James Corden by Elton John John Legend by Harry Belafonte Kerry James Marshall by Grant Hill Leslie Jones by Russell Crowe Margot Robbie by Martin Scorsese Ryan Reynolds by Helen Mirren Sarah Paulson by Cate Blanchett, Bernard J. Tyson by John Lewis Daniel Ek by Ed Sheeran Evan Spiegel by DJ Khaled George Church by Stephen Colbert James Allison by Siobhan O'Connor Janet Yellen by Joseph Stiglitz Jason Blum by Harvey Weinstein Jean Liu by Tim Cook Jeff Bezos by Buzz Aldrin LeBron James by Rita Dove Margrethe Vestager by Helle Thorning-Schmidt Rebekah Mercer by Ted Cruz Tom Brady by Conan O'Brien Vijay Shekhar Sharma by Nandan Nilekani, Chuck Schumer by Harry Reid Donald Trump by Paul Ryan Elizabeth Warren by Kamala Harris General James Mattis by Robert Gates James Comey by John McCain Juan Manuel Santos by Ingrid Betancourt Julian Assange by Jack Goldsmith Kim Jong Un by Christopher Hill King Maha Vajiralongkorn by Charlie Campbell Melinda Gates by Sheryl Sandberg Narendra Modi by Pankaj Mishra Pope Francis by Cardinal Blase J. Cupich Major General Qasem Soleimani by Kenneth M. Pollack Recep Tayyip Erdogan by Can Dundar Reince Priebus by Rahm Emanuel Rodrigo Duterte by Cesar Gaviria Sandra Day O'Connor by Sonia Sotomayor Stephen Bannon by Michael Duffy Theo Epstein by John Cusack Theresa May by Bill English Tom Perez by Tim Kaine Vladimir Putin by Mikhail Gorbachev Wang Qishan by Zoher Abdoolcarim Xi Jinping by John Kerry, Ashley Graham by Tyra Banks Biram Dah Abeid by Aidan McQuade Cindy Arlette Contreras Bautista by Susanna Schrobsdorff Cindy Sherman by Miranda July Colin Kaepernick by Jim Harbaugh David Adjaye by Thelma Golden Fan Bingbing by Diane von Furstenberg Fatou Bensouda by Aryn Baker Gretchen Carlson by Katie Couric Jeanette Vizguerra by America Ferrera John Lewis by Cory Booker Leila De Lima by Samantha Power Margaret Atwood by Ann Patchett Neymar by David Beckham Raed Saleh by Mustafa Abu Faisal Raf Simons by AAP Rocky RuPaul by Naomi Campbell Simone Biles by Leslie Jones Thelma Aldana by Jos Ugaz Viola Davis by Meryl Streep