Brooklyn notables named to TIME 100 list

‘Most influential’ men and women in the world

April 24, 2014 By Mary Frost Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Jason Collins

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Six Brooklyn-related movers and shakers have landed on the eleventh annual “TIME 100,” TIME’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

They include Park Slope song writers Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez; Brooklyn Nets forward Jason Collins; former acting Brooklyn U.S. Attorney and current SEC chair Mary Jo White; and Fed chair Janet Yellen.

While “national voice” Beyoncé lives in Westchester and in other locations around the world, she’s included on the list as an honorary Brooklynite for her support of the Nets with husband Jay-Z, and her backing of the Beyoncé Cosmetology Center at the Brooklyn Phoenix House. Beyoncé is featured on the cover of this year’s TIME 100 issue.

“The TIME 100 is a list of the world’s most influential men and women, not its most powerful,” said TIME managing editor Nancy Gibbs in a statement. “The vast majority of this year’s roster reveals that while power is certain, influence is subtle.”

Gibbs added, “If there is a common theme in many of the tributes, it’s the eagerness to see what some engineer, actor, leader or athlete will do next.”

This year’s list includes 41 women, from Miley Cyrus to Angela Merkel; a number of politicians, including President Obama, Jerry Brown and Hillary Clinton; media celebs like Charlie Rose; and one pope: Pope Francis.

The Winners

Brooklyn Nets forward Jason Collins (pictured above), the first openly gay player in one of the four major American sports, was described by Chelsea Clinton, his classmate at Stanford University, with the words, “Jason’s kindness and fierceness alike derive from that word too often bandied about and too rarely true: integrity.” Collins has inspired athletes from other pro and college sports to come out as well, which is one of the reasons Clinton called him “a leader and an inspiration.”

“Wall Street Watchdog” Mary Jo White led the prosecution of mobster John Gotti when she was acting U.S. attorney in Brooklyn in 1992. Preet Bharara, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, says, “Mary Jo White is without a doubt one of the most influential lawyer-leaders of modern times. But hers is the kind of influence measured not only in cases won and clients defended but also in people inspired and characters formed. After her decades at the pinnacle of law practice, her progeny fill the country’s legal firmament.”

Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, together in Park Slope and on the TIME 100 list, wrote and produced music for the Disney film “Frozen,” “Winnie the Pooh,” and other works. Robert is co-creator of “The Book of Mormon” and “Avenue Q.” “South Park” co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone wrote of the couple, “They are both completely steeped in the traditions of Broadway musicals, but they’re really smart and would never be happy just regurgitating what’s come before.” Their hit “Let It Go,” which won the Oscar for Best Original Song, is “a perfect example of everything we tried to do on ‘Team America’ and ‘South Park’ — and with Bobby on ‘Book of Mormon,’” Park and Stone said.

Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said she shares with Fed chair Janet Yellen, “A concern over unemployment, a strong belief that consensus works better than confrontation, a fierce determination to never see the crisis we’re just starting to overcome happen again and a tenacious conviction that we can do something about it. With Janet now at the helm of the Fed, America, and the world, can … breathe a sigh of relief.”

Beyoncé, winner of 17 Grammy Awards, is one of the best-selling music artists of all time. “In the past year, Beyoncé has sold out the Mrs. Carter Show World Tour while being a full-time mother,” writes Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg. “Her secret: hard work, honesty and authenticity. And her answer to the question, ‘What would you do if you weren’t afraid?’ appears to be ‘Watch me. I’m about to do it.’ Then she adds, ‘You can, too.’”