Eric Schmidt

Matthew Staver/Bloomberg

Eric Schmidt

CEO, Google
U.S.

As the search and advertising giant continues to grow in power and profits, Schmidt finds himself at the center of controversies with increasing regularity. Even as Google (GOOG) has shaken up the mobile-phone industry with its new Android operating system and Nexus One phone, the company's Google Books project to digitize the world's libraries continues to encounter opposition from publishers and authors. Google's recent decision to stop censoring its search results in China—and ultimately to pull out of the Chinese market—marked a line in the sand on Internet censorship amid increasingly uncomfortable Sino-U.S. relations. Schmidt has plenty to talk about at Davos.