Reshma Kewalramani, the Indian-origin CEO of US-based biotechnology company Vertex Pharmaceuticals, featured in TIME magazine’s 2025 list of the ‘100 Most Influential People in the World’ on Wednesday. She is the only individual of Indian-origin to feature in the list.
After immigrating from India to the United States at the age of 11, she pursued a career in medicine and scientific research. Born in Mumbai, Reshma went to United States in 1988 and studied medical science at Boston University. After pursuing a fellowship from Massachusetts General Hospital, she went on to pursue a degree in General Management from Harvard Business School in 2015. She joined Vertex as chief medical officer in 2018 and was appointed CEO in 2020, as per her TIME profile.
Under her leadership, Vertex achieved a major milestone with the FDA’s first-ever approval of a CRISPR-based therapy to treat sickle cell disease. Kewalramani also serves on the board of Ginkgo Bioworks.
Who are on the list?
This year’s TIME100, curated in partnership with Rolex, spans 32 countries and features an eclectic mix of visionaries—from political leaders and corporate CEOs to athletes, artists, and activists. Six members of the Trump Administration, including the president himself, represent the largest contingent from a US political administration since 2009. The list also includes 16 CEOs.
Kewalramani also shares the recognition with cultural icons such as Simone Biles, Scarlett Johansson, Snoop Dogg, and Kristen Bell appear alongside political leaders such as Donald Trump, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, and British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. Tech and business titans include Mark Zuckerberg, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) CEO Lisa Su, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, and Italian-American artificial intelligence researcher and Anthropic co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei.
This year’s list includes six members of the Trump Administration—the largest presence from a US political administration since 2009—as well 16 corporate CEOs. Also, represented are nine individuals fighting for justice and democracy, and figures from 32 countries. The youngest honoree is 22-year-old French Olympic swimmer Léon Marchand; the oldest, 84-year-old Muhammad Yunus, Nobel laureate and interim leader of Bangladesh.
Donald Trump is on the list for the seventh time, more than any other person on the list this year. Other repeats include, Tesla CEO Elon Musk (6), Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg (5), tennis icon Serena Williams (3), Canadian-American television writer and film producer Lorne Michaels (3), American gymnast Simone Biles (3), actor Kristen Wiig (2), singer Ed Sheeran (2), WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (2), Nobel Laureate and Google DeepMind CEO and co-founder Demis Hassabis (2), actor Scarlett Johansson (2), journalist Megyn Kelly (2), actor Blake Lively (2), Argentina’s president Javier Milei (2), Italian billionaire fashion designer Miuccia Prada (2), commentator and podcaster Joe Rogan (2), and Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos (2).
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In a note accompanying the list, TIME’s Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs described the honorees as “individuals whose ideas and actions are pushing the world forward.” He added, “What binds them is not fame or fortune, but influence—impact that lasts beyond a news cycle.”
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