#22 Simon Fuller

Age: 50yrs

Birth Place: Dhekelia, Cyprus

Industry: Music

Influence: Television and Music Pioneer

Net Worth: $2.7 billion $4.1 million

Why they made the list…

Simon Fuller, although born in Cyprus, is a British artist manager, he’s also the television producer and the founding creator of the pop Idol franchise. Pop Idol as you may know first appeared in the UK and has continued over 100 different versions including American Idol and Australian Idol to name just a few. Is also being a manager of many very great performers his most notable ones being Annie Lennox, the Spice Girls, and S club 7. He was the chief executive in 19 Entertainment, which is based in the three major cities of London, LA, and New York. He founded the business in 1985 after leaving the company Chrysalis Ltd and working with some of the most profound names in the music industry such as Madonna. In 1985 aged only 25 years old, he signed the musician Paul Hardcastle his first song went to number one in both the UK and the US charts with his Vietnam song,”19”.

In 1999 he got his first taste of working in television after he had auditioned over 10,000 different people to form a new band, the band was called S club 7. The band later became one of the most popular pop bands of the era taking many number one places in the UK and the US charts. Fuller later came up with the idea of Pop Idol after taking his time and thinking about how S club 7, was such a success and how the process was such a fun way to decide which musicians and singers to have within a band. As many of you will know, and as stated above, pop Idol went on to become huge success and later went over the waters to America where it was just as successful. Fuller had managed to get some of the best presenters and judges in the entertainment industry to appear on a show. This only created more of a hype and just made the program or that more successful.