Once overshadowed by her powerful and ambitious husband who has now been shipped off as an ambassador to Vienna she has grown from a shy woman barely audible when speaking in public to the self-confident chairman of the Khabar media group, the head of Kazakhstan's journalism association and a publicly acclaimed singer, who recently performed at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.

ECONOMIST: Dariga Nazarbaeva's political ascension

Ben Jankowski, group head, global media at MasterCard and an Effies judge who was surveyed, said new media metrics require evolved thinking.

FORBES: Move up http://i.forbesimg.com t Move down

Casey Wasserman, head of Wasserman Media Group, has begun quietly signing up top talent in "action sports" (the preferred tag now that "extreme" is so overused) to form a sanctioning body that would demand media fees.

FORBES: X-treme Economics