Titans
- Sheikha Al Mayassa (watch her TED Talk) makes the list for her work as a patron of the arts in Qatar
- Hillary Clinton (who spoke at TEDWomen in 2010) is honored in a piece by Malala Yousafzai (whose dad appeared at TED2014)
- Jeff Bezos (watch his talk) gets picked as “tech’s most enduring innovator”
- Sheryl Sandberg (watch her latest TED Talk) writes about Beyoncé (whose stealth album of late last year remixed Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TEDx talk)
- Arianna Huffington (watch her TED Talk) writes about Pony Ma, the Chinese internet impresario
- Yves Béhar (watch his talk) writes about TED attendee Tony Fadell, the man behind Nest
- Bill Gates (watch his latest talk) writes on Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote
Pioneers
- TED2014’s surprise speaker, Edward Snowden (watch his talk), not-too-surprisingly makes the list
- Arunachalam Muruganantham (watch his talk) gets picked thanks to his sanitary pad revolution
- Al Gore (watch his latest talk) writes about Tom Steyer of NextGen Climate
- J.J. Abrams (watch his TED talk) shares his love of Alfonso Cuarón, the man behind Gravity
- Brian Greene (watch his talk) writes about John Kovac, whose team identified ripples in space-time consistent with inflationary theory
- TED attendee Shonda Rhimes lauds Jenji Kohan, who made Orange Is the New Black (watch a TEDx talk about the book the show is based on)
- David Agus (watch his talk) writes about David Sinclair, the geneticist working to reverse aging of cells
Artists
- Binyavanga Wainaina (who spoke at TEDGlobal 2007) gets love from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (watch her talk)
Leaders
- Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (watch her talk) is honored for guarding Nigeria’s public funds, and Bono (watch his talk) shares why he is proud to work for her
- Madeleine Albright (watch her talk) clobbers Vladimir Putin for his decisions regarding Ukraine
- Tech investor Esther Dyson (watch her TEDx talk) cheers on Ory Okolloh’s (watch her talk) efforts to rebuild Africa
- Former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Lamido Sanusi (watch his TEDx talk), compliments Thuli Madonsela’s work as public protector of South Africa
- Writer Elif Shafak (watch her talk) shares why she believes Turkey’s president Abdullah Gul is at a crossroads
Icons
- Charlie Rose (watch his talk) gets honored for his interviewing chops, and is called “a disarming man” by Michael Bloomberg
- Gabby Giffords (watch her talk) meditates on Malala Yousafzai’s (watch her father’s talk at TED2014) strength and courage
- Melinda Gates (watch her talk) highlights Christy Turlington Burns’s fight for the health of mothers worldwide
- And finally, T. Boone Pickens (watch his talk) gives unexpected applause for businessman Carl Icahn
—Kate Torgovnick and Becky Chung