The Power 20

Bloomberg

What
President, Eurasia Group
Why
Political scientist Ian Bremmer, 43, already can claim a certain level of success. The three-time author, most recently of “The End of the Free Market” (Portfolio Trade, 2011), speaks frequently throughout the country and around the world — and often to financial advisers at their industry gatherings. Although Mr. Bremmer is not a household name, run a Google search and you find him in good company. “People also searched for” include Nouriel Roubini and Fareed Zakaria, among others.

Mr. Bremmer is the president of Eurasia Group, a leading global political risk research and consulting firm with a network of 150 analysts and contributors, and offices in London, New York and Washington. Advisers have benefited from his insights when considering the implications of foreign-investment risk and exposure in client portfolios. “We need to focus less on growth and more on geopolitical risk,” Mr. Bremmer said in an interview. “Our allies are much more constrained than they used to be,” he said, pointing out that even stable allies such as Japan have suffered from severe political instability. “They have had 19 governments in the last 20 years,” he said. And there is opportunity to be found in keeping abreast of what Mr. Bremmer tackles next year. A recent project involves an emerging-markets strategy group to track the pulse of that sector worldwide.—Davis D. Janowski