Taiwan teacher ranks 8th in Fortune’s top 50 ‘greatest’

TAIWAN President Tsai Ing-wen ranked eighth in Fortune’s 2017 World’s Greatest Leaders for her efforts to pursue economic reforms, bolster tourism from Southeast Asia and steer the nation’s diplomacy, the U.S.-based magazine said over the weekend.

Tsai appears in the list of 50 leaders from the - linda Gates in fourth; Amazon.com founder Jeff German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 10th. Theo Epstein, president of baseball operations for U.S. MLB team the Chicago Cubs, tops the rankings followed by mainland Chinese entrepreneur Jack Ma and Pope Francis.

president captured global headlines in December last year after engaging in a telephone conversation with then-U.S. President-elect Donald Trump which the magazine characterized as a “bold move,” they shared their views on key policy matters, including the need to promote economic development and boost national defense.

Fortune also outlined Tsai’s commitment to pursuing economic reforms, highlighting her enactment of a new labor law that shortens the workweek from

The magazine praised the president’s efforts to diversify the nation’s visitor sources, noting that she has “sparked a tourism boom” from Southeast Asia since her inauguration in May 2016.

Fortune has published its World’s Greatest Leaders ranking annually since 2014. Nominations come from staff members as well as a panel of expert advisers and organizations spanning academics, business, politics, science and the arts.