Sir Richard Branson
AGE: 56
OCCUPATION: Billionaire entrepreneur
NUMBER OF TIME COVERS: 0
PREVIOUS APPEARANCES ON THE TIME 100: 0
PRO: Flashy as he is savvy, the chief of the Virgin Group -- as in Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Mobile and, most recently, Virgin Galactic, his new space tourism company -- is worth roughly $4 billion. He made waves last year by announcing his company would invest $3 billion over the next decade to combat global warming, including a $25 million prize for anyone who finds a way to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
CON: Thanks to his avid courtship of the media, obsession with breaking world records and colorful public persona, he isn't always taken very seriously.