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Tag: Forbes

  • Forbes: Kanye West returns to ‘celebrity 100′ list after 4-year hiatus

    Forbes: Kanye West returns to ‘celebrity 100′ list after 4-year hiatus

    Music and fashion icon, Kanye West has returned to the Forbes’ ‘Celebrity 100′ list after a four-year hiatus, securing the number three spot.
    West, who is on the cover of the magazine’s August edition, is surpassed only by his sister-in-law Kylie Jenner and Taylor Swift, who tops this year’s list.
    The annual Celebrity 100 ranks the world’s highest-paid celebrities in music, sports and entertainment, from Hollywood to Bollywood.
    Speaking to Forbes, West opened up about his billion-dollar Yeezy sneaker empire, which promises to be the best bet in a generation to topple Air Jordan.
    In his first big interview about the business of Yeezy, Kanye talked about his design obsession, which dates back as far as his passion for music.
    He also talked about the fame from his music career gave him the chance to return to his first love: sneakers.
    Impressively, West still owns 100% of Yeezy, which explains how he became a `centimillionaire’ much earlier in his life than Jordan.
    Forbes pegs his pretax income at 150 million dollars over the past 12 months and his team insists the number is even higher, partly due to his Yeezy apparel and sneakers.
    Three years ago in 2016, West claimed to be 53 million dollars in debt, just before canceling the back of a lucrative arena tour.
    Soon after, he checked into a Los Angeles hospital for over a week with symptoms of sleep deprivation and temporary psychosis.
    West credits his turnaround to religious beliefs (“being in service to Christ, the radical obedience”)—and, on occasion, to being bipolar.
    Forbes wrote, “Call him creative, call him chaotic—just don’t call him. Like some entrepreneurs with conditions like ADHD and Asperger’s, he sees his diagnosis not as a hindrance but as a “superpower” that unlocks his imagination.”
    Reacting to the magazine cover, Kim Kardashian-West took to her Twitter handle to congratulate her husband on his re-entry into the list.
    She tweeted @kimkardashian, “Kanye on @Forbes!!! I love this cover and article. Kanye has worked so hard to build Yeezy and always stays true to his vision.
    “He is my inspiration. I watch how hard he works as he puts his soul into every idea and product that he creates.
    “It’s of no surprise to anyone who works with Kanye that he has been able to turn millions of dollars in debt into a billion dollar empire in only 4 years – 100% on his own terms while owning it 100%,” she wrote.
    In 2019, nearly a third of the celebrities on the list are from outside the US. The list includes six actors from the Marvel Universe, thanks to the success of ‘Avengers: Endgame’.

  • Rihanna is World’s Richest Female Musician – Forbes

    “Work, work, work, work, work, work.” That’s the opening line of Rihanna’s 2016 dancehall anthem titled, appropriately, “Work.” It could also serve as her personal motto.

    Famous first as a singer, Robyn Rihanna Fenty, age 31, has since evolved into a style icon and makeup entrepreneur—and soon she’ll be the first black woman in charge of a major luxury fashion house. All those efforts add up to a $600 million fortune, making her the wealthiest female musician in the world, ahead of the likes of Madonna ($570 million), Céline Dion ($450 million) and Beyoncé ($400 million).

    Most of that comes not from music but from her partnership with LVMH, the French luxury goods giant run by billionaire Bernard Arnault. Rihanna (pronounced Ri-Ann-ah, not Ri-Ah-nah as she recently clarified) and LVMH co-own the makeup brand Fenty Beauty.

    It launched in September 2017 at Sephora, another LVMH brand, and online at FentyBeauty.com, quickly becoming a viral success. Fenty Beauty racked up a reported $100 million in sales in its first few weeks, propelled by Rihanna’s fame and 71 million Instagram followers.

    The entire personal care industry in America has grown huge in recent years. According to Grand View Research, it could swell to more than $200 billion in sales by 2025, up from closer to $130 billion in 2016. The market saw a record 134 M&A deals last year, including P&G’s $250 million purchase of 10-year-old First Aid Beauty.

    Perhaps the most telling data point: 11 of the 80 women on Forbes‘ list of the Richest Self-Made Women made their money in beauty or skincare products. Many did what Rihanna did, turn to the low-cost marketing opportunity presented by social media. That works best for existing celebrities, as Kylie Jenner and her Kylie Cosmetics proved out, who can push their new products at their existing followers.

    Fenty Beauty has differentiated itself in another way, releasing 40 shades of foundation, far more than the handful of hues sold by other brands. “It challenged the standard convention that you only needed a very defined set of shades to satisfy a market,” says Stephanie Wissink, a research analyst at Jefferies. “Not only did [Fenty Beauty] achieve meaningful sales, but it potentially changed the industry permanently.”

    Sales continue to soar. Fenty Beauty generated an estimated $570 million in revenue last year, after only 15 months in business. The entire operation is worth, conservatively, more than $3 billion. Forbes estimates that LVMH owns an estimated 50% of it, while Rihanna has about 15%, a figure a spokesperson for the artist disputed but wouldn’t clarify further.

    The Barbados native, who overcame hardships including an abusive addict father and a well-publicized assault by then-boyfriend Chris Brown in 2009, also co-owns the Savage X Fenty lingerie line with Los Angeles-based online fashion firm TechStyle Fashion Group and has millions in earnings from her career touring and releasing as a singer, which make up the rest of her fortune.

    Her empire continues to grow. In May, LVMH and Rihanna announced Fenty, a new clothing house that will make high-end clothes, shoes, accessories and jewelry.

    “They extended the offer to me and it was a no-brainer because LVMH is a machine,” Rihanna told The New York Times Style Magazine. “Bernard Arnault was so enthusiastic; he trusted me and my vision.”

    The fashion line, which launched online in May, includes sizes up to U.S. 14, embodying the same inclusive ideal of Fenty Beauty. It will exist under the same umbrella as famous brands such as Dior and Givenchy, marking LVMH’s first new house in more than 30 years.

    “What Fenty Beauty did to beauty, Fenty lifestyle is going to do to fashion,” says Wissink. “It’s going to raise the bar for what it looks like to build a brand that’s inclusive, game changing, global and iconic.”

  • Divergent views trail Kylie Jenner Forbes youngest self-made billionaire feat

    Divergent views trail Kylie Jenner Forbes youngest self-made billionaire feat

    Some Nigerians, alongside millions of social media users, have reacted to Forbes recent ranking of reality star, Kylie Jenner as the youngest self-made billionaire.

    News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 21-year-old Jenner, on Tuesday, beat Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who topped the list at 23 in 2008, to clinch the highly controversial title.

    Jenner has amassed a personal net worth of $1billion through her wildly successful range of make-up, Kylie Cosmetics.

    Her ranking, however, has been met with mixed reactions on social media as users are especially concerned about Forbes interpretation of ‘self-made’.

    @Ade07u said, “Chill with that ‘self-made’, I am not trying to rain on her parade but I am pretty sure her family name had something to do with her success.”

    @Iambitious wrote, “Self-made people do not even have platforms, they have to build it themselves.”

    @Quasahr said, “I wouldn’t classify her as self-made though. If she hadn’t been in the spotlight and had to start from scratch, I doubt she would have gone this far in a short time.

    “Nevertheless, its remarkable hat she built something successful off her fame.”

    @Valeriepeach said, “She has done well for herself, very commendable but Kylie is not self-made.”

    Also, Dictionary.com challenged reports that describe Jenner as a “self-made” billionaire.

    The site tweeted a response to a Forbes report on Tuesday saying, “Haven’t we gone over this?”

    It provided a definition of the term by tweeting, “Self-made: Having succeeded in life unaided.”

    Meanwhile, Forbes, on Tuesday, explained its meaning of ‘self-made’ on its official website following the backlash of its recent list.

    “Forbes defines ‘self-made’ as someone who built a company or established a fortune on her own, rather than inheriting some or all of it.

    “As long as the list member didn’t inherit a business or money, she is labelled self-made.

    “But the term is very broad, and does not adequately reflect how far some people have come and, relatively speaking, how much easier others have had it,” Forbes wrote.

    The magazine explained the scoring system it introduced in 2014 and showed Jenner’s score in comparison to others who made the list.

    “Based on that scale, someone who inherited everything scores a 1, while someone who not only grew up poor but also experienced substantial hardships – like Oprah Winfrey – scores a 10.

    “Kylie Jenner, who comes from a wealthy family and who has leveraged her fame to her advantage, ranks a 7,” Kerry Dolan wrote for Forbes.

    Jenner is the youngest in her famous, reality TV family, the Kardashians and the first to hit the billion dollar landmark.

    She was surprised by the success of her cosmetics company which was only founded in 2015 but is now worth an estimated $900million.

    Jenner, who owns a 100 percent stake in it, has separate income from endorsements and her family’s reality TV show. She also owns an impressive portfolio of real estate.

  • Kylie Jenner is world’s youngest billionaire – Forbes

    Kylie Jenner is world’s youngest billionaire – Forbes

    Kylie Jenner is officially the youngest self-made billionaire of all time, snatching the title from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

    Jenner, 21, was finally given the title after months of speculation on Tuesday by Forbes as it unveiled its annual billionaires list.

    At 21, she is both the youngest self-made billionaire and the youngest billionaire on Forbes’ ‘young billionaires’ list.

    Jenner has amassed a personal net worth of $1billion through her wildly successful range of make-up, Kylie Cosmetics.

    She overtakes Zuckerberg, who was 23 when he made his first billion 11 years ago in 2008.

    Now, he is the eighth richest person in the world with a fortune of $62.3billion.

    Jenner is the youngest in her famous, reality TV family, the Kardashians and the first to hit the billion dollar landmark.

    She was surprised by the success of her cosmetics company which was only founded in 2015 but is now worth an estimated $900million.

    Jenner, who owns a 100 percent stake in it, has separate income from endorsements and her family’s reality TV show. She also owns an impressive portfolio of real estate.

    That’s a nice pat on the back.

    Kylie Jenner who spoke on becoming the world’s youngest self-made billionaire said,
    ‘I didn’t expect anything. I did not foresee the future. But the recognition feels really good.

    ‘That’s a nice pat on the back,’ Jenner told Forbes.

    She credits her success to her enormous social media following which ensured her customer base before she made her first product.

    ‘It’s the power of social media. I had such a strong reach before I was able to start anything,’ she said, adding that she sees the company going ‘very far’.

    ‘I see Kylie Cosmetics going very far. I work really hard,’ she said.

    Her mother Kris would not rule out that she may sell the company in the future.

    ‘It’s always something that we’re willing to explore,’ she said.

  • Nigeria ranked 110th on Forbes’ Best Country For Business list

    Nigeria ranked 110th on Forbes’ Best Country For Business list

    Nigeria has been ranked as the 110th best country in the world for business and 14th best in Africa out of 161 assessed countries.

    This is according to the 2019 ranking by Forbes, an American business magazine which rated the United Kingdom, Sweden, Hong Kong, Netherlands and New Zealand as the top five best countries for business respectively.

    In 2018, Nigeria ranked 115 out of 153 assessed countries with a GDP growth of -1.6 per cent and GDP per capita given as $2,200.

    However this year, the publication rated Nigeria based on the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 0.8 percent and its GDP per capita of $2,000.

    In Africa, South Africa was 59th on the list and the best African country for business.

    Other African countries ranked on the list include Morocco (62), Seychelles (66), Tunisia (82), Botswana (83), Rwanda (90), Kenya (93), Ghana (94), Egypt (95), Namibia (96), Senegal (100), Zambia (103) and Cape Verde (104).

    Giving the criteria for the rating, Forbes said, it compiled the list by the countries on 15 factors, “including property rights, innovation, taxes, technology, corruption, freedom (personal, trade and monetary), red tape and investor protection,”

    “Other metrics included were workforce, infrastructure, market size, quality of life and risk. Each category was equally weighted.

    “The data is based on published reports from Freedom House, Heritage Foundation, Property Rights Alliance, United Nations, Transparency International, World Bank Group, Marsh & McLennan and World Economic Forum,” Forbes noted.

  • Jerry Seinfeld, World’s highest paid Comedian–Forbes

    Jerry Seinfeld, World’s highest paid Comedian–Forbes

    American comedian Jerry Seinfeld has once again emerged world’s highest- paid comedian by earning 57. 5 million dollars in one year.

    The 64-year-old stand-up comedian and actor who topped the list of the 10 highest paid comedians last year, maintains the feat in the 2018 list released by Forbes Magazine.

    According to Forbes, the rating is based on comedians total earning between June 2017 and June 2018.

    The magazine reported that multi million-dollar dividends from Seinfeld 2017 Netflix deal and Hulu’s streaming rights to all his nine seasons boosted his bottom line to the whopping sum.

    It added that Seinfeld made more than 30 million dollars from his first love, stand-up.

    Seinfeld’s closest rivalry is Kelvin Hart with 57 million dollars, followed by Dave Chappelle, who earned 35 million dollars.

    Sebastian Maniscalco maintains same bottom stand he took last years, earning 15 million dollars.

    Jerry Seinfeld, known by fans as “insurmountable King of Comedy” has maintain the lead on the highest earners list since 2006,except in 2016 when he was displaced to second position by Kelvin Hart.

    He is also an actor, director and stand-up comedian ‘observational comedy’, often ranting about relationships and embarrassing social situations.

    In 2005, Comedy Central named him as “12th Greatest Stand-up Comedian of All Time”.

  • WhatsApp users spend 85 billion hours in-app + other interesting stats

    WhatsApp users spend 85 billion hours in-app + other interesting stats

    According to a report released by Apptopia WhatsApp users spent a cumulative of 85 billion hours using the Facebook-owned messaging app in the past three months.

    TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports that the data released by the US-based app analytics company showed that people globally spent 85 billion hours on WhatsApp that has 1.5 billion users.

    Put into perspective, this is 3.5 billion days or over nine million years — 9,582,650 years to be precise. This means that every human being on the planet spent 11.425 hours on the app in the period.

    Conversely, users spent 31 billion hours on its parent company Facebook.

    “It’s clear that WhatsApp is the global messaging app of choice,” Apptopia’s spokesperson Adam Blacker was quoted by Forbes as saying.

    “Apps having to do with communication take up most of our time spent on our mobile apps,” Blacker added.

    The top 10 apps overall in terms of time spent globally are WhatsApp, WeChat, Facebook, Messenger, Pandora, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Google Maps and Spotify.

    Top Sessions by Apps-2

    The data does not put into consideration all of China’s third-party Android app stores, or WeChat and other China-focused apps would very likely top the standings. Even so, WeChat is in second place overall, the report said.

    Four of the top 10 apps by time spent are Facebook’s Messenger, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Google is a leader as well, with YouTube and Google Maps in the top 10 apps by time spent overall.

    Gamers were not left out in the report and users 3.31 billion hours playing Candy Crush Saga. Among the games, Clash of Clans topped the list with 3.83 billion hours time spent followed by My Talking Tom, Candy Crush Saga, Fortnite, Lords Mobile, Subway Surfers, Helix Jump, Slither.io, PUBG Mobile and Fishdom.

    TEST-3

    According to market research company eMarketer, American adults spend an average of more than three and a half hours a day on their mobile devices. In countries like Nigeria that are basically mobile-first and others that are mobile-only, with very low PC penetration, that’s likely to be even higher.

    According to Apptopia, it gets its numbers by being integrated into hundreds of thousands of apps, allowing it to see performance data globally.

     

  • Serena Williams tops Forbes female rich list

    Eight of the top 10 highest earning female athletes are tennis players, with 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams topping the Forbes list.

    Williams earned just $62,000 (£48,050) from prize money during the past year – owing largely to her 14-month break to have a baby – but made $18m (£13.95m) through endorsements.

    Badminton’s PV Sindhu and race car driver Danica Patrick are the only non-tennis players in the top 10.

    In June, the Forbes rankings of the world’s top 100 highest earning athletes did not feature a woman after Williams dropped out of the chart.

    US boxer Floyd Mayweather topped the list followed by football’s Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

    The top 10 highest earning female athletes earned $105m (£81.4m) in total from June 2017 to June 2018.

    That figure is down 4% from last year and 28% from five years ago.

    Williams’ total earnings ensure she tops the list for the third successive year, making twice as much away from the tennis court as any other female athlete.

    Caroline Wozniacki is second on the list having won her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open earlier this year – a victory that secured her $3.1m (£2.4m) in prize money to push her total earnings to $13m (£10.1m).

    Completing the top five are Sloane Stephens, Garbine Muguruza and Maria Sharapova.

    Russian Sharapova was the top-earning female athlete for 11 consecutive years but has seen her earnings drop after her 15-month doping ban.

    Indian Olympic and world silver medallist Sindhu and Patrick – the most successful female race car driver – are seventh and ninth on the list respectively.

    The top 10 and their total earnings

    Serena Williams (tennis) – $18.1m (£14m)

    Caroline Wozniacki (tennis) – $13m (£10.1m)

    Sloane Stephens (tennis) – $11.2m (£8.7m)

    Garbine Muguruza (tennis) – $11m (£8.5m)

    Maria Sharapova (tennis) – $10.5m (£8.1m)

    Venus Williams (tennis) – $10.2m (£7.9m)

    PV Sindhu (badminton) – $8.5m (£6.6m)

    Simona Halep (tennis) – $7.7m (£6m)

    Danica Patrick (race car driving) – $7.5m (£5.8m)

    Angelique Kerber (tennis) – $7m (£5.4m)

    BBC

  • Dangote emerges only Nigerian on 2018 Forbes World Most Powerful People

    Of the nearly 7.5 billion people on the planet, Forbes has identified the one person out of every 100 million whose actions mean the most.

    Nigerian business mogul and Africa’s richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, 61, was the only Nigerian to make the 75 Most Powerful People in 2018, according to a list released by Forbes. He’s pegged on 66th position coming a spot ahead of Vice President of the United States of America, Mike Pence who’s pegged on number 67 on the list.

    Recall that the President of the Dangote Group of companies has often made such lists due to his business concerns and humanitarian efforts in Nigeria and other parts of the world.

    Dangote, who made his fortune in the cement industry, is turning his attention to dairy and sugar farming; he’s earmarked $800 million to buy 50,000 cattle in the hope of producing 500 million liters of milk annually by 2019.

    He’s also racing to finish a 650,000-barrel-a-day oil refinery near Lagos, set to be one of the world’s biggest, and says he intends to spend as much as $50 billion in the next decade on renewable energy and petrochemical refineries, including investments in the U.S. and Europe. Which is all fine, but not quite his grand ambition: buying Arsenal, his favorite soccer team.

    Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, seizes the top spot on Forbes’ 2018 ranking of The World’s 75 Most Powerful People for the first time ever. China’s congress amended its constitution in March, broadening Xi’s influence and eliminating term limits. Russian President Vladimir Putin (No. 2) has been knocked out of the top spot, a title that he held for four consecutive years. A little over one year into his term, President Donald Trump falls to the No. 3 spot.

    Newcomers to the list include Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud, Crown Prince, Saudi Arabia (No. 8), who has risen to power and will be the fulcrum around which the region’s geopolitics move for the next generation; Jerome H. Powell, Chair, Federal Reserve (No. 11); Emmanuel Macron, President, France (No. 12), who is pivoting France toward the world’s capitalist stage; Jean-Claude Juncker, President, European Commission (No. 33); Michel Temer, President, Brazil (No. 50); Moon Jae-In, President, South Korea (No. 54); Hui Ka Yan, Chair, China Evergrande (No. 60); Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister, Singapore (No. 61); Ken Griffin, Founder, Citadel (No. 65); Qamar Javed Bajwa, Chief of Army Staff, Pakistan (No. 68); Reed Hastings, Cofounder, Netflix (No. 71); and Robert Mueller, Special Counsel, Justice Department (No. 72), who has already indicted several of President Trump’s associates and can make or break the Trump administration.

    “This year’s ranking of The World’s Most Powerful People highlights the consolidation of power in the hands of an elite few,” said Forbes Contributing Editor David Ewalt. “China’s Xi Jinping ranks in first place for the first time, unseating Vladimir Putin, who held the top spot for four consecutive years. This also makes President Trump only No. 3 on the list, which is unprecedented only a year into his term.”

    Angela Merkel, Chancellor, Germany (No. 4), remains the world’s most powerful woman. Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud is now the youngest person on the list, a title formerly held by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (No. 13). Bernaud Arnault, Chairman, LVMH (No. 56) returns to the list thanks to swelling revenues at his fashion house Louis Vuitton.

    Four factors were taken into account to select each of the World’s Most Powerful People: how many people over whom they have power; the financial resources they control; if they have influence in more than one sphere; and how actively they wield their power to change the world.

    Forbes annual ranking of The World’s Most Powerful features 75 people — one for each 100 million people on Earth.

    Out of the 75 members, 17 are newcomers. Among them there are presidents, billionaires, heads of organizations, CEOs, and one Special Counsel. One commonality: their words and actions impact large number of people, businesses– even entire economies.

    From the new President of France to the army chief of Pakistan to the world’s most powerful person in sports, below are all new members of the ranks.

    The only newcomer who’s ranked in the top 10 is Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud (#8). In November last year, the crown prince locked up a group of 200 people of the country’s richest and most powerful (including his billionaire cousin), forcing them to turn personal fortunes to the state as a part of an “anticorruption campaign.” After sequestering their assets, he went on an American tour to gladhand with Trump, Bezos, Gates and Oprah among others.

    The ex-Carlyle Group partner Jerome Powell, became the world’s top central banker in February, after Trump didn’t extend Janet Yellen’s term. The Georgetown-educated lawyer will have big shoes to fill, as Yellen is widely considered to have done an outstanding job regarding the drop in unemployment and rise in the stock market.

    In early 2017, after the strong favorite for new president Francois Fillon found himself entangled in corruption scandals, the relatively unknown Emmanuel Macron seized the chance. Uniting the center and the left, in May of last year, Macron obliterated the far right candidate Marine Le Pen, and at age 39 became France’s youngest leader since Napoleon. The ex-Rothschild banker has big plans about the traditionally obstinate country – in an interview with Forbes he vowed to eliminate the 30% exit tax for anyone who wants to take money out of France.

    In August of last year, John Flannery took over as CEO of General Electric. One of America’s most iconic companies has certainly seen better days since Edison started it in 1890: share price is slashed in half over the last three years, mostly due to decades of bad acquisitions in the power business. The Wharton MBA and GE veteran will have the difficult task to persuade investors and clients that one of the corporation can bounce back up.

    European Union’s top executive Jean-Claude Juncker makes his debut in a difficult year. Following Brexit, the anti-EU sentiment in many countries is stronger than it has ever been in the past. It is up to the ex-prime minister of Luxembourg to persuade government heads and local citizens that EU is still, 26 years after its creation, a good idea for them.

    When Rex Tillerson left Exxon Mobil with a $180 million parachute for what turned out to be a short-lived stunt as a Secretary of State, the Board appointed Darren Woods as the company’s new CEO. The Kansas native has big plans for Exxon as it prepares for a low carbon future. “We understand the risk” (of carbon affecting global climate) he told FORBES earlier this year.

    The only South American on the list is Brazil’s head of state, Michel Temer, who as Vice President inherited the most important position in the country after his predecessor Dilma Rousseff was impeached and removed from office. It’s been a difficult time to be a Brazil president: Rousseff’s predecessor Lula was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison, and Temer found himself entangled in corruption scandals.

    One more president who took over after his predecessor was charged is South Korea’s Moon Jae-in. The ex-special forces sergeant was elected as leader of South Korea after Park Geun-Hye was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to 24 years in prison. In April he and the leader of North Korea made headlines, when Kim Jong-un crossed the southern border for the first time and the two vowed to work on improving the relations between the countries.

    Another newcomer from the Far East is Chinese billionaire Hui Ka Yan. His real estate developer China Evergrande has had a fantastic year — share price is up nearly 230%.

    Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong joins the list two years into his latest mandate and fourteen years as Singapore’s head of government. The leader of the successful free-market promoting city-state said that he expects the economy to grow a 2.5 percent this year. He also chairs GIC Private Limited, one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, with estimated assets under management of $359 billion.

    One of Wall Street’s most powerful players, Ken Griffin earned an estimated $1.4 billion last year from net fees coming from his $28 billion Citadel hedge fund. Privately, he recently paid $60 million to buy the most expensive home in Chicago.

    Though Pakistan’s top general Qamar Javed Bajwa has a boss on paper (the Prime Minister appoints him) in reality it is a different story. Late last year he refused Prime Minister Abbasi’s order to send troops to deal with Islamist protesters in Islamabad, and he brokered a peace with the angered crowd that resulted in the resignation of the Justice Minister. Bajwa, the most powerful person in the nuclear armed state, once served in Congo under the ex-chief of the Indian army who praised his professionalism.

    Fidelity heiress Abigail Johnson debuts on the list the same year the investment firm’s assets under management reached $2.4 trillion. The Harvard MBA (whose grandfather started Fidelity in 1946) is one of the wealthiest women in the world with over $15 billion next to her name.

    One of Hollywood’s two most powerful people doesn’t even live in Southern California. Reed Hastings, whose Netflix is headquartered closer to Apple and Google than it is to Disney and the Hollywood sign, saw his personal net worth more than double thanks to the rising popularity of Netflix. By the end of March, the streaming service boasted 125 million users globally.

    The longest serving FBI director (2001-2013) since J. Edgar Hoover got assigned the case of his lifetime: determining if, and to what extent Trump’s campaign colluded with Russian officials. So far, Robert Mueller, a decorated Vietnam War hero, has indicted several of the President’s closest associates and reportedly provided the tip that to the raid on Trump’s personal lawyer.

    Joko Widodo, the leader of the fourth-most populated country in the world and Southeast Asia’s larget economy, recently found himself a target of human rights groups, after his government reportedly sentenced an Indonesian teenager to 18 months in prison for insulting him on Facebook. Widodo, popularly called Jokowi, is still largely supported by the masses in the country that counts more than 260 million people.

    The world’s most powerful person in sports, FIFA’s President Gianni Infantino was elected to the position after his predecessor Sepp Blatter resigned amid a series of corruption scandals. An important announcement is set to come from FIFA in June: which country will host the 2026 World Cup. The current competitors are Morocco and a joint bid by Canada, United States and Mexico.

  • Google ranks 3rd in world’s most reputable companies

    Internet giant, Google has emerged in third position in Reputation Institute (RI) Global RepTrak 100 Research ranking of the world’s most reputable companies of 2018.

    RI said, by tracking and analyzing stakeholder perceptions in 25 industries across 40 countries for more than 7,000 companies, “we unleash the power of reputation to enable leaders to build better companies”.

    TheNewsGuru reports RI is a reputation measurement and management services firm, and since 2006, RI has published the Global RepTrak 100, an annual study of corporate reputation.

    This year’s ranking revealed an average 1.4-point decline in the reputation of RT100 companies, the first significant regression since the end of the Great Recession, according to Forbes.

    “The reputation bubble has burst. We have a crisis of trust. Over the past year-and-a-half, we’ve reached a strategic inflection point… People are questioning, ‘Can I really trust corporations?’ And for two-thirds, the jury is out,” Forbes quotes Stephen Hahn-Griffiths, chief research officer of the RI, as saying.

    The World’s Most Reputable Companies 2018:

    Rank Company
    1 Rolex —
    2 LEGO —
    3 Google Up
    4 Canon —
    5 The Walt Disney Company Down
    6 Sony Up
    7 Adidas Up
    8 Bosch Down
    9 BMW Group Up
    10 Microsoft Up
    11 Michelin Up
    12 Nike Up
    13 Nintendo Up
    14 Levi Strauss & Co. —
    15 Intel Down
    16 Goodyear Up
    17 Rolls-Royce Down
    18 Ferrero Down
    19 Philips Up
    20 Bridgestone Up
    21 Visa Up
    22 Giorgio Armani Up
    23 Amazon Down
    24 Netflix Up
    25 3M Down
    26 Samsung Up
    27 Toyota Up
    28 HP Up
    29 Panasonic Up
    30 Pirelli Up
    31 IBM Down
    32 Marriott International New
    33 Nestle Up
    34 Danone Up
    35 Hugo Boss Up
    36 Barilla Down
    37 Mastercard Down
    38 Lufthansa Group New
    39 Colgate-Palmolive Down
    40 Dell Down
    41 LG Up
    42 Kellogg’s Up
    43 KraftHeinz Up
    44 L’Oréal Up
    45 Cisco Down
    46 IKEA Up
    47 Caterpillar Down
    48 LVMH New
    49 Lavazza New
    50 Ralph Lauren Down
    51 Siemens Down
    52 Honda Down
    53 Whirlpool Down
    54 IHG New
    55 Boeing Down
    56 FedEx Down
    57 Fujifilm Up
    58 Apple Down
    59 Daimler Down
    60 Emirates Down
    61 Airbus Down
    62 Heineken Down
    63 Estée Lauder Down
    64 Nokia Up
    65 Oracle Down
    66 Hilton Down
    67 Hershey’s Down
    68 Electrolux Up
    69 British Airways Down
    70 Natura New
    71 Ford Down
    72 Johnson & Johnson Down
    73 Xerox Down
    74 Campbell’s Down
    75 P&G Down
    76 DHL Down
    77 Novo Nordisk New
    78 Havaianas New
    79 Embraer New
    80 SAP Down
    81 Toshiba Down
    82 Air France KLM Down
    83 Kimberly-Clark New
    84 Mars New
    85 General Electric Down
    86 Bayer New
    87 Unilever Down
    88 Honeywell New
    89 Bacardi Limited Down
    90 Nissan Down
    91 Roche New
    92 eBay Down
    93 Carlsberg New
    94 Hitachi Down
    95 UPS Down
    96 Fujitsu Down
    97 The Coca-Cola Company Down
    98 Sanofi New
    99 AB InBev Down
    100 Lilly

    To determine the RT100, according to Forbes, RI surveyed more than 230,000 individuals in 15 countries from January to February 2018.

    Companies considered typically have revenue in excess of $50 billion, a presence in all surveyed countries and brand familiarity with at least 40% of the general population.