Foreign Policy, a highly respected global news magazine, named Al-Qahtani as one of its 100 top global thinkers of 2012.

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What I will enjoy, as I do every year, is the chance to hear the global players speak, and the brightest and best thinkers give us their take on global problems.

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His continuing influence was also apparent in his ongoing membership of the Bilderberg group, an elite collection of Western thinkers and powerbrokers who meet annually to discuss global issues.

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The global demographics, while seemingly moving at a glacial pace to the short-term thinkers, are simply undeniable over the intermediate to longer term.

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Time and time again it has been independent thinkers that have at the fundamental stage started the whole process of developing a new global industry.

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When FORBES GLOBAL celebrates its own anniversary at age five next year, we may have more to say on the great economic thinkers of the age, from Keynes and Hayek through Milton Friedman and Robert Mundell to those who will carry the debate from here on.

FORBES: 85 and kicking