The 2025 Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement Awards

Breakthrough Idea Award: Kate Vitasek, University of Tennessee (Haslam)

Coaching & Mentoring Award: Jeff Hull & Margaret Moore, Institute of Coaching

Digital Thinking Award: Hamilton Mann, INSEAD

Future Readiness Award:  Amy Webb, New York University (Stern)

Innovation Award: Aidan McCullen, Trinity College Business School (Dublin)

Leadership Award: Ranjay Gulati, Harvard Business School

Radar Award: Neri Karra Sillaman, University of Oxford (Saïd)

Regenerative Business Award: Paul Hawken, Erewhon

Strategy Award: Sangeet Paul Choudary, UC Berkeley (Haas)

Talent Award: Ludmila Praslova, Vanguard University of Southern California

Lifetime Achievement Award: Lynda Gratton, London Business School

Founders’ Award: Henry Stewart, Happy Ltd.

To read bios of the winners and learn who made shortlist for each award, click here.

Thinkers50 Leaders Over The Years

2023

1. Amy Edmundson
2. Adam Grant
3. Andrew Winston & Paul Polman
4. Amy Webb
5. W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne

2021

1. Amy Edmundson
2. Rita McGrath
3. W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne
4. Alex Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur
5. Roger L. Martin

2019

1. W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne
2. Roger L. Martin
3. Amy Edmundson
4. Alex Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur
5. Rita McGrath

2017

1. Roger L. Martin
2. Don Tapscott
3. Clayton Christensen
4. W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne
5. Michael Porter

2015

1. Michael Porter
2. Clayton Christensen
3. W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne
4. Don Tapscott
5. Marshall Goldsmith

2013

1. Clayton Christensen
2. W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne
3. Roger L. Martin
4. Don Tapscott
5. Vijay Govindarajan

2011

1. Clayton Christensen
2. W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne
3. Vijay Govindarajan
4. Jim Collins
5. Michael Porter

2009

1. C.K. Prahald
2. Malcolm Gladwell
3. Paul Krugman
4. Steve Jobs
5. W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne

2007

1. C.K. Prahald
2. Bill Gates
3. Alan Greenspan
4. Michael Porter
5. Gary Hamel

2005

1. Michael Porter
2. Bill Gates
3. C.K. Prahald
4. Tom Peters
5. Jack Welch

2003

1. Peter Drucker
2. Michael Porter
3. Tom Peters
4. Gary Hamel
5. Charles Handy

2001

1. Peter Drucker
2. Charles Handy
3. Michael Porter
4. Gary Hamel
5. Tom Peters

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