11. Michael Dowling

The onetime chief adviser to former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo joined North Shore LIJ in 1995. He’s the president and CEO of a $4 billion network that provides healthcare through 15 hospitals, a medical research institute, four long-term care facilities, three trauma centers, six home health agencies and many outpatient centers, throughout Long Island, Queens and Staten Island. Simply put: The number of lives in Dowling’s hands are innumerable. The system is the third largest nonprofit secular healthcare system in the country, and with 8,600 beds, 8,000 doctors and 10,500 nurses—and a hospital that just delivered JLo’s twins—his hands are quite full.