Vinod Khosla

SPHERE OF INFLUENCE: In the last couple of years, Khosla, 53, has emerged as Silicon Valley’s pre-eminent eco-investor, laying out more than $300 million of his personal fortune to back scores of start-ups in green technology: biofuels (KiOR turns biomass into crude oil in just a few hours), fuel-efficiency technologies (Transonic Combustion cuts oil consumption in half), and carbon sequestration (cement-maker Calera drastically reduces carbon emissions). The Sun Microsystems co-founder is also an active developer of Internet software, including the popular Facebook applications iLike and Slide.

CAN BE PROUD OF: According to Fast Company, Khosla’s six best deals for the venture-capital outfit Kleiner Perkins turned $314 million of seed money into $15 billion in cash and stock.

ON THE RECORD: “The main problem to solving problems is having the problems be critical enough to get attention It’s almost like a crisis is a terrible thing to waste.”