7. Thomas DiNapoli

As the sole trustee, overseer and manager of New York State’s $179 billion pension fund, Tom DiNapoli has direct impact on the lives of more than 1 million members, retirees and beneficiaries. He’s responsible for ensuring the fund not only meets annual performance benchmarks and for mitigating security risks, but also that investment practices and policies adhere to the highest levels of ethical conduct and transparency. On the latter note, DiNapoli has made it one of the most transparent and accountable public pension funds in the country, by instituting a series of policies and regulatory reforms that bolster its fundamental integrity, strengthen its oversight, and further safeguard its assets and investments. DiNapoli takes ethics and transparency so seriously, in fact, that he’s extended these tenets to agencies and municipalities throughout the state, conducting audits that forensically analyze their fiscal protocols, actions, and, through a wide range of publicly accessible databases online, enable taxpayers to probe how their hard-earned funds are being put to use. From a “Fiscal Stress Monitoring System” assessing the financial health of school districts, to “Open Book New York” providing useful insights about local government spending, state contracts, and state expenditures, to an “Unclaimed Funds” portal to check if residents are owed “lost” monies, DiNapoli informs—and empowers—everyday citizens to hold local and state officials and agencies accountable. That’s true power.