TECHNOLOGY

Paul Buchheit
Co-founder // FriendFeed

EVIL SLAYER Software designer Paul Buchheit was Google employee No. 23 (think of the stock options!) and the creator of both Gmail, the company's popular email service, and the first prototype of AdSense, its highly profitable online-ad program. For most software engineers, these would be accomplishment enough. But perhaps his biggest distinction comes from coining the phrase "Don't be evil," which expresses to the world how the search giant intends to conduct business. Buchheit first uttered those three words in the summer of 2001, during a meeting convened to discuss how Google should communicate its corporate values. As options were written on a whiteboard—boring platitudes like "Honoring your commitments" and "Striving for excellence"—Buchheit grew more and more dispirited until finally he blurted out the phrase. At first, the leader of the meeting placed Buchheit's suggestion at the bottom of the list. "But my friend and I kept advocating for it, and we kept inching it up the list," he says. Then "Don't be evil" took on a life of its own, spreading rapidly through the Googleplex, and ultimately it was included in the company's 2004 initial public offering prospectus. "I wanted to give people license to ask a question that maybe doesn't get asked often enough," Buchheit says. Namely, "Is this the right thing to do?" Buchheit left Google in 2006 and in 2007 became a co-founder of FriendFeed, a startup that lets people know what Web content their friends and family are sharing. He is also, appropriately, an angel investor. —Rodes Fishburne
AUTOMOBILES
Ratan Tata
Chairman // Tata Group

MASS TRANSIT Ratan Tata believes the future of the auto industry rests in the hands of people who don't yet drive. Besides snapping up Jaguar and Land Rover, his company, the Tata Group, is developing a car that will cost just $2,500. By shipping it in parts to dealerships, Tata will spend relatively little on factories and labor. The model won't be sold in the U.S. but has the potential to radically alter the market for manufacturers here. Tata-inspired followers are already revving up their engines: Nissan-Renault is partnering with India's Bajaj Auto to develop a car by 2010 that will sell for less than $3,000. But except for Ford India, U.S. companies can't produce a model this cheaply. Which means they risk being run over. —Jessica Liebman

FINANCE
Jamie Dimon
C.E.O. // J.P. Morgan Chase

BEAR HUNTER Visionary is a term that's rarely used to describe Jamie Dimon, a sometimes brash brass-tacks banker who grew up in Queens, New York. Yet he now may shape the future of Wall Street. The takeover of Bear Stearns by his bank, J.P. Morgan Chase, was hailed for preventing a potential meltdown in world markets. Grumbling from Bear shareholders and a negotiating snafu prompted a fivefold jump in the fire-sale price. But the deal is still a huge boon to J.P. Morgan's hedge fund and other businesses, and the best part is the safety net: The Federal Reserve will back $29 billion of Bear's riskiest debt. A decade after being ousted from Citigroup by his mentor, Sandy Weill, Dimon, 52, is at the top of the financial world and has since reconciled with Weill. "I'm very proud of him," Weill said after the deal was announced. "What he did was something great for the whole financial industry, preventing God knows what." —Jeffrey Cane