Make way for the “young people”!
Compiling a list of winners remains a subjective exercise. Like many other things, the pandemic also seems to have accelerated a certain transfer of power in the economic sphere. This novelty effect is an important criterion in this award.
Some big names that consistently dominate economic rankings have been left out for simple reasons. For example: Warren Buffett, nicknamed the Oracle of Omaha, is increasingly disputed. Bill Gates and his ex-wife Melinda French Gates have rained down tens of billions of dollars in support of multiple causes through their foundation, but they can hardly be called “new” influencers.
And Canada?
If there is one constant on the economic planet, it is Canada’s weight: it is negligible. This is not to say that the Canadian economy is not working, on the contrary: the main economic indicators bear witness to this. But taken individually, Canadians have very little influence on the course of macroeconomic events.
Its main giants are banks, oil companies and telecommunications companies which, on a global scale, are medium-sized at best. Shopify has become the world’s number two in e-commerce behind Amazon, but its founder and chief executive Tobias Lütke remains much more unobtrusive than a Jeff Bezos. The co-founder and chairman of the board of Alimentation Couche-Tard, Alain Bouchard, could be the most influential Quebec businessman on the planet… if only this role interested him.
And women ?
Why aren’t there more women in this ranking of “masters” of the universe? This does not mean that there are none at the head of large corporations or conglomerates. Just think of businesswoman Mary Barra, who in 2014 took the reins of the management of the American automaker General Motors – becoming the first woman to lead a major automaker. There is also the French multi-billionaire Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, head of L’Oréal, or the wealthy American philanthropist Julia Koch.
However, it is clear that on the economic and financial planet, men continue to impose themselves. A quick look at Forbes’ list of the 50 richest people in the world reveals that only about a quarter of the ranking is made up of women. And among the 50 companies in the world with the highest revenues? There are only three leaders: the Chinese Jessica Tan Sin-yin, co-CEO of Ping An Insurance Group, and the Americans Jane Fraser at the head of Citi and Karen S. Lynch, of CVS Health. In short, there is still a long way to go.