Tata Sons Chairman, Ratan Tata has been recognised as one of the 50 most influential management thinkers in the world. He was named in 12th place in the Thinkers 50 by The Times newspaper. Over 3,000 people, including Times readers voted, with the top 100 nominations then assessed against ten criteria, including originality of ideas, impact, presentation style, research rigour and business sense. Others listed include Bill Gates (at number 7), Sir Richard Branson (at number 8) and GE's Jack Welch (at number 20).