Samsung’s Lee tops President Park on Forbes’ powerful people list

Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Kun-hee has been ranked 41st by Forbes on its list of the world’s most powerful people of this year.

President Park Geun-hye was placed at No. 52, 11 notches below the business mogul.

The economic magazine ranked top 72 power brokers ― 1 for every 100 million people on Earth ― and released the annual list along with their snapshots on Wednesday.

Lee and Park were among 13 newcomers. Park was also one of only nine women who made the cut.

The title of the world’s most powerful leader went to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He edged out U.S. President Barack Obama, who held the title in 2012.

Putin has solidified his control over Russia while Obama’s lame-duck period has seemingly set in earlier than usual for a two-term president, with Forbes pointing to the government shutdown crisis.

This is the first year for Putin to carry the crown. Obama had topped the list every year since the list’s creation in 2009 with the exception of 2010, when Hu Jintao, then politician and military leader of China, was No. 1.

Newcomers included Pope Francis at No. 4; Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at No. 57; Janet Yellen, nominated by Obama as the next leader of the U.S. Federal Reserve, at No. 72; and Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, the richest man in Africa, at No. 65.

The list’s nine women represented 12 percent of the world’s most powerful. Park joined the other female heads of state German Chancellor Angela Merkel at No. 5, Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff at No. 20 and de facto head of India Sonia Gandhi at No. 21.

Lee was ranked 69th on the Forbes list of the world’s billionaires in March. According to Forbes, he is Korea’s richest person with a net worth of $12.6 billion, and wields significant influence in Asia and Silicon Valley.

Park is described as the first female leader of South Korea with the world’s 15th-highest GDP at $1.15 trillion.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, jumped from ninth to third place in a reflection of China’s growing power.

By Chun Sung-woo (swchun@heraldcorp.com)