1. Robert Mercer

The co-chief executive of East Setauket-based investment management firm Renaissance Technologies (RenTec) ranks atop this list for many reasons, the vast majority of which remain largely unknown to the general public. RenTec is widely recognized as the most lucrative, and secretive, hedge fund in existence, currently overseeing a reported $36 billion in assets, and historically its portfolio of funds has enjoyed returns far exceeding the industry. Its enigmatic Medallion Fund—closed to outside investors since 1993 and available only to current and former employees—averaged an unimaginable 71.8 percent annual return, before fees, from 1994 through mid-2014, according to Bloomberg, and has garnered roughly $55 billion in profits. But sheer wealth is not a prerequisite for this annual Power List. More importantly, it’s what honorees do with that wealth, and the reclusive Mercer, who shuns the spotlight and rarely makes public statements, has sealed this top spot with how he’s utilized his fortune. Mercer’s influence is not just national, but global. A mathematical genius and former IBM computational linguistics pioneer, he has emerged as the deep-pocketed Svengali who is literally shaping U.S. domestic and foreign policies to his ideological vision via President Donald Trump, whose ascension to the White House Mercer near-single-handedly spearheaded. Facilitated by the controversial U.S. Supreme Court ruling Citizens United, which opened the floodgates for billionaires such as he to pour unlimited funds into advertising and broadcasting campaigns targeting political candidates and causes—largely behind the veil of super PACs—Mercer has doled out more than $36 million to GOP candidates and super PACs since then, financing a vast array of conservative initiatives. The largest outside benefactor of former Republican presidential hopeful Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, he switched allegiances to Trump and had his close associates installed to run his campaign: former Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen Bannon, pollster Kellyanne Conway, and conservative advocacy group Citizens United President David Bossie. Mercer invested heavily in Breitbart News, the alt-right mouthpiece, early on, and is still a co-owner. His data-analytics firm Cambridge Analytica helped Trump secure the presidency the same way RenTec generates billions—through cutting-edge technology and computer-driven algorithms that identify opportunities and execute with laser-guided precision to reap otherwise-unattainable strategic advantages. Mercer wields enormous influence through Bannon, Conway—Trump’s chief strategist, and the president’s “counselor,” respectively—and his daughter, Rebekah, aka “Bekah,” who served on Trump’s transition team, ran her father’s multi-million dollar super PACs, and directs The Mercer Family Foundation, which has invested tens of millions of dollars into conservative causes. From promoting climate change skepticism and tax cuts for the ultra-rich to closing our borders and dismantling the so-called “welfare state,” Mercer impacts us all, and his ideologies are charting America’s course far into the future.

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