AGE 74: Carlos Slim Helú

Honorary chairman of América Móvil

What makes him powerful: Slim's four-year run as the world's richest person came to an end in 2013, but he's arguably more dominant than his successor, Bill Gates. Slim — worth an estimated $71 billion — controls three-quarters of the communications market in Mexico. A year ago, Mexico's President Pena Nieto sought to take him down a level by boosting competition for fixed-line telephones, cellphones, and television. Slim responded by entering the TV industry, giving América Móvil a new line of business that could generate $1.5 billion in sales by 2018.