Age: 66
Occupation: Burmese President
When Burma's military regime, which has ruled in one form or another since a 1962 coup, announced it would transfer power to a quasi-civilian government, few took the brutal junta seriously. The new President, installed last March, is a former general, after all. But Thein Sein shocked the world by releasing political prisoners and meeting with Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Could Thein Sein be Burma's Gorbachev?