AGBeat’s top 50 industry influencers

Anthony Foxx

[dropcap style=”style1″]B[/dropcap]est known as the youngest mayor in Charlotte, NC’s history, Anthony Foxx has since become the U.S. Transportation Secretary, barely having cracked his forties. He was responsible for bringing the 2012 Democratic National Convention to his hometown.

Foxx’s department oversees 11 separate federal agencies, including the National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aviation Administration, and others, employing over 55,000 people with a $70 million operating budget.

He has done so much at such an early age, and regardless of your political affiliations, you should watch Foxx as a potentially powerful force in the future.

Bijoy Goswami

[dropcap style=”style1″]B[/dropcap]ijoy Goswami is a Stanford graduate (although he never brings it up in conversation to act superior) who studied Computer Science, Economics, History and inter-disciplinary honors in Science, Technology, and Society. He has founded startups and is very well respected in the tech startup world. Bijoy is the author of The Human Fabric: Unleashing the Power of Core Energy in Everyone and is working on his second book presently. He is well known for mental models, as he maps out the interconnectedness of business sectors, cities, and so on. No matter his net worth, you’ll typically see him donning a t-shirt and jeans, as he is a minimalist (not to mention a bootstrapping expert), but the real reason you must meet him is because the information he shares online is invaluable to anyone looking to understand and grow their business.

Brian Carter

[dropcap style=”style1″]W[/dropcap]hat many people don’t know about Brian Carter, author of The Like Economy, LinkedIn for Business, and co-author of Facebook Marketing is that he is a comedian.

Sure, he’s well respected for his internet marketing expertise, and he’s a highly sought after keynote speaker, but he does stand up, and he’s actually funny (the proof is on YouTube, including some of our favorite cuss words).

Brian writes for two of the most popular marketing blogs, Search Engine Journal and AllFacebook, and his writing is almost as entertaining as his standup. Follow him on Twitter @briancarter and heckle him for some extra fun.

Charles Gaudet

[dropcap style=”style1″]F[/dropcap]ounder of PredictableProfits.com, Charles Gaudet has championed entrepreneur marketing and seeks to help those around him to create better visions of themselves. Unlike the gurus of the world, he actually inspires action – follow him on Twitter for five minutes and you’ll see what we mean.

Through a focus on accountability, honesty, and integrity, Charles drives businesses to set the bar high. He says that “When business owners find this higher purpose of providing true value, the culture of business shifts from a focus on profits to a focus on people – to the long-term benefit of everyone involved.”

Chris Treadaway

[dropcap style=”style1″]F[/dropcap]rom LSU to Microsoft to CEO of Polygraph Media, Chris Treadaway now helps helps organizations make better decisions with social data mining & analytics.

Facebook, Twitter, and other social media today are perhaps the greatest repositories of consumer data the world has ever seen, and Polygraph Media helps people unlock the potential of what is there.

Treadaway is a force in the tech industry, an author (Facebook Marketing: an Hour a Day), but most importantly, one of our favorite information sources about the geeky inner workings of big data, a crucial topic that most entrepreneurs still don’t understand.