The Silicon Valley 100

2011 was a huge year for Silicon Valley. 

Larry Page took over Google and dropped $12.5 billion on Motorola a couple of months later.

IPOs finally returned to tech as Zynga and LinkedIn found their ways to public markets.

The greatest innovator and CEO of his generation left us.

Now, after months of research, debates, and more research, we're happy to present the latest installment of the Silicon Valley 100, a compilation of the people who did the coolest things in Silicon Valley this year.

A big shout out to everyone named in the list; you earned it. We apologize if we missed anyone, we're not all-knowing.

Click here to see the coolest people in the Valley >

In A-Z Order

The Complete List 1-100

Acknowledgments

Thanks to our many readers who took the time to send us nominations. The Silicon Valley 100 was assembled by Abby Rogers, Alyson Shontell, Nicholas Carlson, Jay Yarow, Matt Rosoff, and Julie Zeveloff, and copy edited by Jill Klausen.

#100 Jason Shellen

Head of AOL's AIM team, Responsible for new AIM

AOL's Palo Alto office is a long way from the company's east coast bases in New York and Dulles, Virginia. And yet, Shellen and a crew of reinvigorated engineers did good work in 2011. The highlight: a re-done AIM.

#99 Michael Morell and Ali Behnam

Managing Partners, Riviera Partners

There's a talent war on in Silicon Valley, and these guys are the big guns. They recruit for Twitter, LinkedIn, Groupon, Zappos, Box.net, and other hot Bay Area companies.

#98 Mary Meeker

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Mary Meeker, one of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers' most prized partners, joined a lot of high-profile boards last year—including SoundCloud, as part of its $50 million round.

She's one of the most knowledgeable tech gurus in the valley—so be sure to see her knock-out presentation on the state of the web from the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco last year.

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