The Making of the TIME 100

By Jim Kelly/Managing Editor

One of our most popular series of the past few years was the TIME 100, our list of the most influential people of the 20th century, culminating in Albert Einstein as Person of the Century. I oversaw the first installment, Leaders and Revolutionaries, and I still remember the heated debates about whether we should pick Richard Nixon or Ronald Reagan (the Gipper won out) and whether Joseph Stalin should join the list with Adolf Hitler (he didn't make it).

Michael Elliott, who first suggested that this time we select the current 100 most influential people in the world, sifted through hundreds of nominations and, with Richard Zoglin and under the guiding hand of Steve Koepp, settled on the final 100. Then came the task of matching writer with subject. We turned first to our own staff and contributors. Cairo bureau chief Scott MacLeod, for example, wrote about the men behind the al-Jazeera network, Andrew Sullivan handled George W. Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Moscow bureau chief Paul Quinn-Judge critiqued Vladimir Putin, Pico Iyer made the case for the Dalai Lama, and Belinda Luscombe interviewed Nicole Kidman. Many of the profiles, however, were written by people who are not journalists but who have special insights into our selections. In two cases our writers--Warren Buffett on Bill Gates and Bono on Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi--are remarkable enough that they made the TIME 100 list as well. --Jim Kelly, Managing Editor