The 2010 TIME 100

This year I have been especially influenced by people I've met in Haiti who have performed amazing things in the wake of the earthquake and even before, after the four hurricanes. One person in particular is a man from the Ivory Coast named Valentin Abe, 47, who, after graduating from Auburn University, went to Haiti to raise fish and to put more Haitians to work and increase their incomes. He powers his entire operation with solar energy, and he involves fish farmers, whose incomes he's multiplied two or three times or more. I met one man with eight children who said that because of his partnership with Valentin, he had been able to send his children to school for the first time. There are people like this all over the world. They don't get noticed very much, but they have a profound influence on the people whose lives they touch.

Clinton is the 42nd U.S. President and the founder of the William J. Clinton Foundation

TIME 100 Social-Networking Index: 0