Most Powerful

• #1 Lee Kuan Yew
  Singapore Party State ControlPolitical Cold War and Globalization State Power Power: 100
  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) was a Singaporean politician and lawyer who served as the first prime minister of Singapore, leading the government from 1959 to 1990 and remaining an influential cabinet figure for decades afterward. He is widely credited with transforming Singapore from a colonial port into a high-income, globally connected city-state through policies emphasizing economic openness, state capacity, and administrative discipline. Under Lee and the People’s Action Party (PAP), Singapore pursued industrialization, expanded public housing, built a professional civil service, and positioned itself as a hub for finance, trade, and multinational investment.Lee’s governance model has also been a source of sustained debate. Supporters describe his approach as pragmatic and necessary for survival in a small, vulnerable state facing regional instability and ethnic tensions. Critics argue that the PAP entrenched political dominance through restrictive laws, aggressive litigation, detention without trial in security cases, and institutional arrangements that limited opposition space. Lee became an internationally influential voice on development and governance, advocating a strong state, social order, and communitarian values, while defending constraints on civil liberties as tradeoffs for stability and growth.
• #2 Najib Razak
  EuropeMalaysiaMiddle EastSingaporeUnited States FinancialParty State ControlPolitical 21st Century Finance and WealthState Power Power: 100
  Najib Razak (born 1953) is a Malaysian politician who served as prime minister of Malaysia from 2009 to 2018 and previously held senior cabinet roles including finance and defense. He led the long-governing United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) during a period of large infrastructure spending, subsidy restructuring, and intensified use of state-linked finance. His political career became inseparable from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal, a major international financial case involving allegations that billions were misappropriated from a state investment fund. After the 2018 election defeat that ended UMNO’s uninterrupted national rule since independence, Najib faced multiple prosecutions and convictions connected to SRC International and 1MDB, including a sentence reduction granted by a royal pardon process in 2024 and further convictions in late 2025 that he has sought to appeal.
• #3 Goh Cheng Liang
  Singapore IndustrialIndustrial Capital Control Cold War and Globalization Industrial Capital Power: 90
  Goh Cheng Liang (1927 – 2025) was a Singaporean businessman who built a major fortune in paints and coatings through Wuthelam Holdings and its long-running partnership with Nippon Paint. Starting from small-scale trade and manufacturing in postwar Singapore, he assembled a regional platform that combined manufacturing, distribution, and brand control. The core of his influence was the NIPSEA joint venture network established in the 1960s, which helped turn Nippon Paint into a dominant coatings brand across many Asian markets. By the 2010s and 2020s, corporate transactions and ownership restructuring connected his privately held group to the Tokyo-listed Nippon Paint business in a way that drew global investor attention, reflecting how industrial capital can scale through cross-border equity control as well as factories and sales channels.
• #4 Eduardo Saverin
  BrazilSingaporeUnited States FinancialFinancial Network ControlTechnological 21st Century Finance and WealthTechnology Platforms Power: 62
  Eduardo Saverin (born 1982) is a Brazilian entrepreneur and investor best known as a co-founder and early financier of Facebook and as a co-founder of the venture capital firm B Capital Group. His wealth profile is anchored in an unusually favorable early equity position in one of the most valuable technology companies of the modern era. Saverin’s story illustrates how a small, early stake in a platform can become an enduring financial engine, even when the founder is pushed out of operational leadership and later shifts to a different role in the business ecosystem.Saverin studied at Harvard University, where he met Mark Zuckerberg and participated in the creation of Facebook in 2004. In the company’s early phase, Saverin was described as the business manager and chief financial officer, providing seed funding and handling practical steps related to incorporation and early monetization ideas. The partnership later broke down, culminating in legal conflict over dilution, ownership, and control. The dispute ended in a settlement that preserved Saverin’s recognition as a co-founder and left him with an equity stake that remained valuable as Facebook expanded globally.