Founder and CEO, Amazon

The world is not quite enough for the founder and chief executive of Amazon, one of whose latest ventures is Blue Origin, a spaceflight company that hopes to be propelling us all into the heavens in the (relatively) near future. And Bezos's probably intends that we take a Kindle with us for in-flight reading.

As Amazon's CEO, he's used to going where no one has gone before, not least with Kindle, which is his firm's bestselling item, far outstripping the books, DVDs and other items that the company's been shipping to our doors since 1994. Its success has fuelled the fastest growth that ­Amazon has experienced in a decade, with sales figures increasing by 51% in the three months up to June 2011. And the advantages the device offers – portability combined with impressive battery life, instant access to Amazon's vast stock and comparative cheapness – multiply as more and more publishers wouldn't dream of releasing a new title without its ebook version.

With a digital library service and the Tablet, which Bezos hopes will rival Apple's iPad, both in the offing, plus a rapidly burgeoning self-­publishing programme that has been the making of several hitherto ­unknown writers, Amazon's assault on traditional bookselling looks set to continue for some while yet.