This is the English translation of the ranking. Click here for the original version in German of the 2025 CALL 100: The World’s Most Inspiring Peopke edition.
Who has inspired, motivated and excited us the most? CALL presents the ninth edition of the “CALL 100: The World’s Most Inspiring People” list, selected by an international jury and the CALL editorial team.
1 Pharrell Williams, Multitalented Artist
(NEW) He is the man who can do everything. Hardly anyone else has influenced modern pop culture as much as he has in the last two and a half decades. The 13-time Grammy Award winner has produced hits for Daft Punk, Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake, Madonna, Miley Cyrus, Gwen Stefani and Snoop Dogg. He has sold over 120 million records. His hits like “Lucky” catapulted him to the top of the charts worldwide. He started designing fashion—back then for Adidas—as early as 2014, became co-owner of the jeans brand G-Star and reached the fashion pinnacle in 2023 when the iconic French brand Louis Vuitton appointed him as the successor to the late Virgil Abloh as creative director of the men’s line. As a style icon, he has a global popularity that shapes the fashion world like virtually no other, and he makes masterful use of social media. Now Pharrell Williams’s biopic “Piece by Piece” is showing in cinemas. He didn’t want a classic film adaptation of his life, but rather a story that transcends all conventions and is intended to spark the audience’s imagination. The result is a biopic in form of a LEGO animation directed by Morgan Neville, where Pharrell Williams‘ life is told with LEGO figures. Pharrell Williams carried the Olympic flame at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games last July in Paris to the Basilica of Saint-Denis and sang in front of the world public at the spectacular reopening of Notre Dame in December. Since last year, he has also been a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. The multitalented artist, who has been married to model Helen Lasichanh for 11 years and is the father of four children, was voted the world’s most inspiring person by the international CALL 100 jury for his creative vision and influence on modern culture.
2 Taylor Swift, Singer
(1) She just turned 35 and has already broken every record in the music industry: Taylor Swift played 152 shows on five continents in the past two years. Her Eras Tour generated an incredible two billion US dollars. This inspired her to do a good deed that is unique in music history. She paid each member of the tour crew a bonus, which amounted to a total of 197 (!) million US dollars: whether truck driver, technician or dancer, everyone who helped make the tour a success was able to enjoy an unexpected windfall. The monumental tour could have had a very different outcome if the planned terrorist attack at the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna had not been prevented. Gratitude is also part of Taylor Swift’s DNA. This not only makes her extremely likeable, but also a role model for us all.
3 Emmanuelle Charpentier, Scientist and Nobel Prize Laureate
(36) She made the most groundbreaking discovery in medical history, which not only can completely change our lives—and massively extend them—but also enables the treatment of diseases that had previously been impossible to cure. French geneticist and microbiologist Emmanuelle Charpentier developed the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing scissors, which can be used to switch genes on and off. What sounds simple is a revolutionary technique. For these achievements, she received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020. For seven years, Charpentier conducted research in Vienna, but she was simply let go. The epochal significance of the gene scissors is becoming increasingly apparent in the growing number of practical applications. They will even make it possible to green deserts by creating plants that can survive despite the drought. This is the eighth time that Charpentier has been included in the CALL 100 list – and the highest position so far.
4 Michael J. Fox, Actor and Activist
(Re-Entry) For more than three decades, he has fought a heroic battle against the disease that first took away his career, then his quality of life, and finally his ability to make people laugh and inspire them. But Michael J. Fox is not giving up. Twenty-five years ago, he established a foundation for research into Parkinson’s disease, and although his attacks are so severe at times that they cause temporary paralysis, he gives courage to all sufferers. “My daughter got married this year,” he said in 2024. “Even though every day is harder, these are the events I want to live for.” He even rocked in a wheelchair with Coldplay. A hero of our time..
5 Jane Goodall, Zoologist, Primatologist and Anthropologist
(9) She celebrated her 90th birthday last year. The British behavioral scientist Jane Goodall studied the lives of chimpanzees and learned a great deal about humans in the process. In 1977, she founded the Jane Goodall Institute, which now has 31 offices worldwide and is committed to sustainable, holistic animal protection and development programs in Africa, as well as operating sanctuaries for orphaned and confiscated chimpanzees. In her youth program Roots & Shoots, 150,000 children and young people in over 100 countries have been motivated to develop projects for people, animals or nature. Much of what we know about wild chimpanzees comes from Jane Goodall’s work. Today, in her Great Ape Project, Goodall also advocates certain rights for the great apes that are similar to human rights. A pioneer of animal and environmental protection.
6 Refik Anadol, AI and New Media Artist
(34) He is probably the most important AI and new media artist of our time. From billions of data, Refik Anadol creates immersive visual worlds that have never been seen before. His works can be found in the most important museums in the world, such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and his installations at the Venice Biennale or The Sphere in Las Vegas fascinate millions. For Refik Anadol, data is a form of memory. He finds inspiration in the most remote places, such as the indigenous Yawanawa people in the Amazon basin. Austrian conceptual artist, art and media theorist Peter Weibel was one of his most important mentors and supporters. Refik Anadol has been named one of the world’s 100 most inspiring people three times. This time, he has achieved the highest ranking.
7 Sister Lucy Kurien, Angel of the Poor, Founder of Maher
(30) It was a day in 1991 that would change the life of Catholic nun Lucy Kurien forever. After she was not allowed to take in a pregnant woman at the convent at night and had to ask her to come back the next day, her drunken husband poured gasoline over his pregnant wife in front of the convent and set her on fire. She burned painfully in front of the convent. At that moment, Sister Lucy swore she would never turn anyone away again. She founded the Maher aid organization, which has since opened 65 shelters in seven Indian states and changed the lives of over a hundred thousand people. Today, Maher is more than just a place of refuge—it is a beacon of hope and compassion. The organization is constantly growing, but one thing remains constant: the doors are always open to those in need, regardless of gender. Whether victims of domestic violence, homeless families or people in financial distress—at Sister Lucy’s shelter, everyone finds a home and support. Sistery Lucy is a true heroine of our time.
8 Jonathan Tetelman, Tenor
(27) He jobbed as a techno DJ, waited until he was 25 to decide on a classical music career and has already been celebrated by music fans and the international arts press as the “next Domingo”. The “New York Times” called him “a total star”. Jonathan Tetelman, born in Chile and adopted at seven months, grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, and is currently conquering the music world. He is the new superstar of classical music. He made his Salzburg debut in Macbeth alongside Asmik Grigorian. Then things happened very quickly: in spring 2024, he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York with La Rondine, and in January 2025 at the Vienna State Opera with Cavalleria Rusticana. His album “The Great Puccini” was an international success. Tetelman represents a completely new type of opera singer: down-to-earth, personable, and cool—with a voice that is rarely found. A tenor who will seamlessly join the list of great tenors such as Pavarotti, Domingo, and Kaufmann.
9 Lina Ghotmeh, Architect and Humanist
(16) She views herself as a humanist of architecture and, with the complex simplicity of her approach, represents the design language of tomorrow. Lina Ghotmeh is considered one of the world’s most innovative and inspiring architects. She is deeply committed to the symbiosis of space and landscape. Her designs, such as the Hermès factory in Louviers, are testament to her visionary and sensitive approach to architecture, always in harmony with nature and based on sustainability. Born in Beirut in the 1980s, she experienced the civil war and the destruction of this old, cosmopolitan city as a child. She completed her architectural studies at the American University of Beirut, worked with Jean Nouvel and Norman Foster at an early age and won the international competition for the design of the Estonian National Museum in her mid-20s. Lina Ghotmeh’s work has received multiple awards and was shown at the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale. A visionary of tomorrow’s design.
10 Mauro Porcini, Designer & Chief Design Officer, PepsiCo
(44) As Chief Design Officer of PepsiCo, Mauro Porcini fundamentally changed the way of thinking and the culture of the global corporation with its 315,000 employees—and thus became a visionary for a completely new way of managing a company. He puts people, not products, at the center of all his thoughts and actions and considers empathy, curiosity, friendliness, optimism and respect to be some of the most important qualities for creating world-changing innovations. Since Porcini’s start, PepsiCo has increased its enterprise value to 214 billion US dollars, and on its 125th anniversary, he presented a completely new Pepsi logo. The fashion lover (his shoe collection includes over 300 pairs)—ranked for the third time on the CALL 100 list—lives with his wife Carlotta and daughter Beatrice in New York and the Hamptons. Porcini says: “Innovation is an act of love.” How right he is.
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