Global Thought Leaders

The Global Thought Leaders, 2013

Karin Frick, Peter Gloor and Detlef Gürtler of the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute(GDI) have released their 2013 rankings of the most influential global thinkers, and the Global Thought Leader Map. This project aims to measure the influence of the world’s most important thinkers.

Who are the thought leaders shaping today’s discourse on the future of society and the economy? Whose ideas are defining and changing our lives?

GDI’s project identifies influential thinkers using specially designed “Coolhunting” software that tracks each figure’s influence, centrality and networking on the blogosphere and the Wikisphere. Unlike other similar rankings, this list focuses on figures whose influence is exerted through thought leadership, rather than their actions.

Among the Columbia faculty on the list were two members of the Committee on Global Thought, Saskia Sassen and Joseph Stiglitz. Also included on the list are many of the global thinkers who have participated in CGT’s events and programming over the years. Al Gore (1), Lord Nicholas Stern (10), George Soros (89), and Robert Shiller (96) have spoken at CGT’s programs on sustainable investment. Philosopher Peter Singer (3) has discussed global poverty and ethics at CGT events. Development economist Ha-Joon Chang (54) is a member of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue’s Africa Task Force. Amartya Sen (72) has appeared at numerous CGT events on Indian economic development, and authored a contribution in a forthcoming volume in the Kenneth J. Arrow lecture series.

Click here to view the executive summary and interactive map from GDI. Click here to download the full analysis: Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute: The Top 100 Global Thought Leaders