The 100 Most Creative People In Business

Meet the year's most inspiring and envelope-pushing leaders in tech, culture, health, and more.

01-05 FOR LEADING AMERICANS BEYOND THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS

Jaclyn Corin, Emma González, David Hogg, Cameron Kasky, and Alex WindCofounders, March for Our Lives

Cameron Kasky recalls the eerie realization that descended upon the kids huddled in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School classroom where he and his younger brother, Holden, were hiding from a 19-year-old former student with an AR-15. “I remember seeing a lot of people not confused anymore,” says Kasky. After all the years of lockdown drills, it was happening to them.

Since that February day in Parkland, Florida, when 14 students and three faculty members were killed, Kasky and fellow classmates Emma González, David Hogg,

Jaclyn Corin, and Alex Wind have dedicated themselves to preventing it from happening to anyone else. In the week after the shooting, these five teens helped form the core leadership of what quickly became the #NeverAgain movement, a grassroots effort that has inspired nationwide school walkouts and local legislative changes, and drew more than 1.2 million people, predominantly youth, to the streets of Washington, D.C., and cities across the country for the March for Our Lives rally this past spring. Crucially, the students have even spurred action in the business arena, prompting retailers and banks to support stronger restrictions around gun sales. Having spoken the language of social media since they had baby teeth, they knew far better than any brand or media company how to create an effective viral phenomenon, mobilizing on Twitter and leveraging press coverage to call for gun control. Plus, says González, “as children, we’re good at being loud and demanding attention. No one is allowed to ignore this [issue] anymore.”