The World's 5 Most Powerful People in Tech

With the 2011 edition of the World's Most Powerful People now released, it's interesting to observe how potent the technology industry is. While the majority of the listees are leaders of big countries like Russia and major cities like New York, tech leaders remain affluent even on global scale. Aside from perhaps financial industry, no space stands out in the list quite like tech. So the question must be asked then—who, among the techies, are the most powerful of all?

1. Bill Gates (#5 overall)

Mr. Gates is much more about philanthropy than technology these days. In fact, Forbes lists his organization as the Bill & Melina Gates Foundation, not Microsoft, the highly impacting software giant he founded decades ago. Still, it's hard to ignore his historical significance in the tech space—and his tremendous wealth is not lost on Forbes.

2. Mark Zuckerberg (#9 overall)

It's not every year that a 27-year-old is named one of the 10 most powerful human beings on earth—in fact, it's not every year that anyone in tech ranks in the top 10. But such is the case for Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the hoodie-donning multi-billionaire who has 800 million people wrapped around his finger.

3. Sergey Brin and Larry Page (#30 and #31 overall)

The two Google co-founders appear neck-and-neck in world power. It doesn't need to be said that Google is one of the world's most well known websites, with its search function being used by hundreds of millions of people every day and its mobile Android platform sweeping the globe. Still active in the company, Sergey and Larry will certainly be immortalized as tech legends.

4. Jeff Bezos (#40 overall)

The founder and CEO of Amazon, Jeff has revolutionized e-commerce in more ways than one. Once simply an American bookseller, Amazon is now a globally popular shopping portal for a wide range of consumer goods, as well as a publisher of books and seller of ereaders and tablets. Not too shabby.

5. Tim Cook (#58 overall)

Tim Cook took over the reign of Apple, the world's most valuable tech company and second (sometimes first) most valuable in the world, from deceased legend Steve Jobs. He's an Apple veteran, and while he wasn't a founder and is only newly the CEO, the sheer magnitude of managing a company as titanic as Apple is a surefire way to snag a spot on the Forbes list.