Zeynep Ton

Sinan Aral, Emilio Castilla, Andy McAfee, Zeynep Ton, Geoff Parker, and Marshall Van Alstyne have each received Thinkers50 honors in 2025. Since 2001, Thinkers50 has recognized leading business and management ideas every two years with their Top 50 global rankings of the most influential business thinkers, emerging Radar ones to watch, and Distinguished Achievement Awards in specific management categories—“the Oscars of Management Thinking” (Financial Times). 

The top 50 honorees on the Thinkers50 2025 Ranking of Management Thinkers include:

Sinan Aral (David Austin Professor of Management; Professor of Information Technology and Marketing; Director of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy—IDE), who “forensically and persuasively gets to the reality inside social media and tech”; 

Andy McAfee (Principal Research Scientist and Co-Director of the MIT IDE), who with Erik Brynjolfsson (former IDE Director) “launched into the thought leadership stratosphere in 2014 with ‘The Second Machine Age’”; 

Zeynep Ton (Professor of the Practice, Operations Management), “a leading voice on the case for good jobs,” who “explores how companies can satisfy customers, employees, and investors simultaneously”;

Marshall Van Alstyne & Geoffrey Parker (Digital Fellows at MIT IDE), who “developed the concept of two-sided markets, which is used extensively in platform business models, and delivered the first comprehensive analysis of platform technology.”

Emilio Castilla (NTU Professor of Management; Professor of Work and Organization Studies) is on the Thinkers50 2025 Talent Award Shortlist, recognizing “thought leaders who have illuminated the complexities and opportunities of the dynamic talent marketplace,” for his book entitled, “The Meritocracy Paradox: Where Talent Management Strategies Go Wrong and How to Fix Them.”

Andy McAfee is also on the Thinkers50 2025 Future Readiness Award Shortlist, celebrating “a visionary thinker who has profoundly advanced our understanding of what it means to be future ready,” for his books with Erik Brynjolfsson “exploring how digital technologies are transforming the economy, workforce, and society.”

The honors above were celebrated at the Thinkers50 London Summit & Awards Gala in November 2025.