The City is back but under new management
BRITAIN’S financial landscape has been transformed since we last shone a light on the City’s most powerful figures two years ago.
The City A.M./CityJet Power Hundred 2011 list ranks the most influential figures in UK finance as we head into the new year. It should be no surprise that it is very different from 2009.
Then, the City was reeling after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers had almost caused the collapse of the world’s financial system. Politicians were calling the shots over humbled financiers.
But markets and financial institutions have since regained much of their confidence. Stock markets are up and the bond market has called to account heavily indebted governments.
In the UK, the new chancellor has taken decisive action to get the country’s finances under control and has vowed to ensure Britain remains attractive in a fiercely competitive market.
There are a stunning 43 new entries on the list. Much of this upheaval is down to the huge turnover of business leaders in the wake of the financial crisis. Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and Santander are among the giants that supply the 15 new chairmen and chief executives in the list. Big names that have left include former HSBC chairman Stephen Green and Lord Turner, the FSA chairman.
There were no dealmakers in the previous top 10 but with the economy out of recession, stock markets up and companies sitting on cash, this year we highlight the top investment bankers companies will turn to when opportunities arise
Politicians and regulators will continue to play a greater role in the City. Bank of England Governor Mervyn King tops our list because of his dominance of economic policy and regulation while the inclusion of European Commissioner Michel Barnier in the top 10 reflects the threat Brussels poses for London.
The City is back doing what it does best – allocating capital, advising Britain’s top companies and creating wealth. Drawing on the expertise of our reporting team and on the views of a number of senior City figures, whom we thank profusely, our list showcases those driving this revival.
The publication of the list has been supported commercially by CityJet, the airline that operates out of City airport.
Yesterday CityJet’s CEO Christine Ourmières said: “As the airline that flies from the heart of London to Europe’s most important business capitals, CityJet is the obvious choice for the Power 100.”
1 Mervyn King, Bank of England
The Bank’s Governor has emerged from the crisis as the UK’s commanding figure on economic policy. His sure-footed handling of the crisis post-Lehman, enhanced formal powers and influence place him in top spot.
After winning a turf war with the Financial Services Authority the Bank will be responsible for regulating firms and macroprudential supervision from 2012.
The Governor has also exercised great informal influence in persuading David Cameron’s coalition government that early and big budget cuts are needed to put the country’s finances back on a secure footing.
Recent disclosures at the Treasury Select Committee and by Wikileaks have raised questions about King’s forays into fiscal policy. This highly political Governor has made plenty of enemies but that is to be expected when money is the biggest political question of the day.
2 Bob Diamond, Barclays
Diamond will finally get the top job as Barclays chief executive on 1 January after losing out to John Varley in 2004.
As the City’s most public high earner and head of Barclays Capital, Diamond has faced attacks from Vince Cable and Peter Mandelson among others and his elevation is a show of strength by the bank.
Barclays shunned the Labour government’s bailout two years ago, and he will lead a bank free of direct state interference.
Diamond defied his doubters by emerging from the crisis with BarCap stronger than before. The American’s audacious takeover of Lehman Brothers in the US made Barclays a serious player on Wall Street – something no other UK bank has achieved. Now Diamond needs to prove he can manage a retail bank – unless he decides to split the group.
3 George Osborne, Chancellor
The chancellor’s decisive action to cut the deficit has calmed markets and reassured most who doubted his abilities.
Osborne has tempered his anti-banks rhetoric and knows a thriving City will play an important role in recovery and Britain’s long term prospects. His pragmatic approach to taxation should also help preserve Britain as an attractive base for companies and prosperous people. With David Cameron taking care of the big picture, Osborne is the man who counts on the economy. Now he will be hoping there aren’t too many blips along the way.
4 Antonio Horta-Osorio, Lloyds Banking Group
In the previous Power Hundred we put Horta-Osorio in third spot and predicted he would go far after he built Santander UK into a real threat to the big four banks. Only the addition of the new chancellor nudged him down a place this year.
Now the dapper Portuguese has switched sides to become chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group – the giant retail lender that is home to a third of all British current accounts. At Lloyds he will have to continue the integration of HBOS while persuading the government that the bank should not be broken up. With his government owners under pressure to tame the banks, he will also need to make sure customer service is up to scratch – something he struggled with at Santander.
5 Michel Barnier, European Commission
The European financial services commissioner’s presence in our top 10 underlines London’s vulnerability to new controls taking shape in Brussels after the supposed failure of Anglo-Saxon capitalism.
The City faces a wave of new EU regulation, ranging from crackdowns on hedge fund transparency, derivatives and short-selling to new supervisory bodies and tougher rules on bank bonuses and computerised high-frequency trading. The Savoyard Frenchman has stressed that he is not out to punish the City but the flood of new rules poses a greater threat to the UK than to other European countries because Britain benefits from London’s position as the region’s financial powerhouse.
6 Stuart Gulliver, HSBC
Gulliver emerged from this year’s unseemly and very non-HSBC leadership feud as the global bank’s new chief executive – a job he has long coveted.
The 50-year-old is an HSBC veteran and takes credit for reshaping his global banking and markets business to capitalise on HSBC’s corporate relationships and emerging market strengths after a failed attempt to rival the US bulge bracket.
Based in London in recent years, Gulliver will be based in Hong Kong to take up his post as the bank continues to refocus on its Asian roots after suffering huge losses in the US during the credit crunch.
HSBC pulled out of talks to buy South Africa’s Nedbank earlier this year but Gulliver may want to make his mark with a significant deal to drive growth with group revenues under pressure.
7 Richard Gnodde, Goldman Sachs
The co-chief executive of Goldman Sachs International joined the bank in 1987 and helped build its European business, becoming head of UK investment banking.
After a long stint in Asia the 6′ 4″ South African returned to London in 2005. He wasted no time tapping into sources of power and was the first investment banker the Labour government consulted about Northern Rock.
Michael Sherwood is formally Goldman’s top UK banker, but Gnodde is regarded as the smooth operator who does most of the wooing of chief executives and politicians. With his formidable contacts book and the power of the Goldman money machine he ranks top of the list of corporate advisers who have entered our top 100 as the City gets back to business.
8 Simon Robey, Morgan Stanley
Head of Morgan Stanley UK and co-chairman of global M&A.
When the firm’s biggest British clients have strategic plans or face crises, their chairmen call Robey for advice.
Helping Cadbury in its defence against the hostile takeover offer from Kraft of the US kept Robey occupied into the early part of this year.
After starting his career with Lazard, Robey joined Morgan Stanley in 1987 and rose to become co-head of global mergers and acquisitions in addition to his UK role.
The former choral scholar could have been a professional singer and has chaired the Royal Opera House since 2008. The unusually self-deprecating banker’s other interests include Arsenal FC, where he has held a season ticket for more than 20 years.
9 Ian Hannam, JPMorgan Cazenove
JPMorgan Cazenove’s chairman of capital markets nearly quit the broker when he was passed over for the chief executive’s job in 2008 but stayed on to keep driving the business as it capitalised on the joint venture with JPMorgan. A former member of the Territorial Army’s version of the SAS, he was one of the main architects of the deal and is most responsible for transforming the old-school broker into a money-making machine. Relentless in the gym and in negotiations, the fitness fanatic is renowned for submerging everything for his clients and has led a series of mining deals, notably for Xstrata.
The Royal broker’s top rainmaker is a Bermondsey grammar schoolboy from a family of Millwall fans.
10 Ana Patricia Botin, Santander
The daughter of Santander’s chairman Emilio Botin has been thrown in at the deep end after the shock defection of Antonio Horta-Osorio to Lloyds. As well as having to prove herself as chief executive in an unfamiliar market, she takes over with a UK IPO in the pipeline for early 2011.
The 50-year-old golf enthusiast has led Santander’s Banesto retail bank since 2002 and weathered the Spanish crisis through prudent management of bad debts.
Botin takes over a powerful retail bank and, as the City’s most senior woman, will wield enormous clout if she plays her cards right.
11 Peter Sands, Standard Chartered
Sands is the last UK bank chief executive standing from the start of the credit crunch and it is easy to see why.
The emerging markets bank had record profits throughout the crisis and Sands helped devise the 2008 bank bailout, increasing Sands’s influence and moving him up from the 20s two years ago.
Sands defies expectations of bank bosses with his Swatch watch and understated style. But the former McKinsey high flyer has insisted he will pay what it takes to get the best bankers in markets like India. He has also raised the prospect of his bank leaving the UK if regulation gets too burdensome.
12 Stephen Hester, RBS
Hester was ranked a lowly 30 two years ago because he had yet to prove himself as chief executive at the stricken giant.
Hester’s dismantling of Sir Fred Goodwin’s empire has been unrelenting and the country sports enthusiast has proved adept at acknowledging the excesses of the banks while hammering home the realities for government-controlled RBS as it competes to keep and hire top bankers.
Hester worked at Credit Suisse, overhauled Abbey National and led British Land before taking over at RBS.
A combative classy operator who will make a great deal of money if his efforts get RBS’s share price back on its feet.
13 Douglas Flint, HSBC
HSBC’s finance director emerged as chairman from the rubble of the global bank’s leadership race.
HSBC’s chairman used to rule the bank but Flint’s more non-executive role will see him oversee new chief executive Stuart Gulliver.
The dry but affable Scot knows every inch of HSBC, is hugely respected in the City and has the gravitas to gladhand clients, politicians and officials around the world. After fixing relations with shareholders over the leadership chaos, his big challenge may be deciding whether HSBC will stay in the UK.
14 Hector Sants, FSA
The Financial Services Authority chief executive said he would quit ahead of George Osborne’s plan to break up the regulator but stayed on and will head regulation of firms when it moves to the Bank of England.
In the meantime, Sants is carrying out his threat that firms should be “very frightened” of the regulator.
The former Credit Suisse banker took the helm at the FSA as the crisis started in 2007 and has shifted the watchdog from friendly face to enforcer. He drops out of the top 10 but might yet rise to the top at the Bank.
The FSA had a bad end to the year when it was forced to accept that details of its RBS probe should be published.
15 Marcus Agius, Barclays
Barclays’ chairman faced calls for his resignation in 2009 after the bank opted for an expensive capital injection from Qatar instead of entering the government bailout.
But his insistence that staying clear of state control was worth the hefty price has been vindicated as Barclays has emerged from the crisis with its independence intact.
The imperturbable former Lazard London head, who is married to a member of the Rothschild family, was called on to use his fabled diplomatic skills to conjure a smooth handover between chief executive John Varley and bitter rival Bob Diamond.
Other roles include director of the BBC and trustee of Kew Gardens.
16 Sir Philip Hampton, RBS
Hampton has straddled the worlds of business and politics since leading a review of regulation in 2004. His skills are in much demand as chairman of nationalised RBS and he is a new entry in our rankings.
After nine years at Lazard, Hampton spent the 1990s in finance director jobs before joining Lloyds and quitting in a row over the dividend.
As chairman of J Sainsbury he thwarted an approach from Qatar Investment Authority and was the first chairman of UK Financial Investments before becoming RBS chairman and taking on Sir Fred Goodwin over his pension. Combines charm with steel and decisiveness.
Sir Win Bischoff, Lloyds Banking Group
The perennial City grandee’s powers of persuasion were in evidence this year as he lured
Antonio Horta-Osorio from Santander to lead Lloyds and managed a graceful exit for Eric Daniels. The Anglo-German banker joined Schroders in 1966 and rose to become chairman in 1995 before selling the firm’s investment bank to Citi.
He stayed on at the US bank and was drafted in as emergency chief executive in 2007 before taking over as Lloyds chairman after Sir Victor Blank departed following the troubled HBOS acquisition.
Bischoff grew up in Germany before moving to South Africa aged 13 and has dual British and German citizenship. He reviewed London’s competitiveness as a financial centre for the last government.
18 David Mayhew, JPMorgan Cazenove
Mayhew remains as chairman of JPMorgan Cazenove after the merger between the Queen’s broker and its US joint venture partner of five years. The deal reaped a £19m windfall for Mayhew as a reward for 40 years at the firm, which the old Etonian joined from Panmure Gordon in 1969. Mayhew is hugely well connected among Britain’s top companies and Caz is stil corporate broker to the most FTSE 100 clients. After making a success of the joint venture, the flyfisherman and pedigree cattle expert’s task is to keep his clients and top dealmakers on board now the US bank owns the venerable broker outright.
19 Sir John Vickers, Banking Commission
As chairman of the government’s independent banking commission, Vickers will pronounce on whether retail and investment banks should be separated and whether the sector is anti-competitive.
The commission is not due to report until September 2011 but the former Bank of England top economist and Office of Fair Trading chief has already argued in a paper written before his appointment that Lloyds’ controversial takeover of HBOS was “a mistake” that did little to support financial stability.
His consumer-friendly panel’s proposals could trigger the break-up of some of Britain’s biggest banks. That is, if the chancellor chooses to accept their conclusions.
Michael Sherwood, Goldman Sachs
Sherwood is the driving force within Goldman’s Fleet Street money machine and is one of the bank’s three global vice chairmen.
Starting out in bonds in 1986 after studying economics at Manchester, the former Westminster School pupil progressed through the ranks and became one of its most powerful traders. Sherwood now has an influential role in the bank’s strategy and relationships and is regarded as “the man who gets the deal done” at Goldman. The Watford supporter grew up in North London and has a fortune estimated at £150m.
21 Robin Budenberg, UKFI
The former UBS investment banker’s heavy involvement in the 2008 bank bailout made him an ideal choice to lead UK Financial Investments, which manages the state’s stakes in RBS, Lloyds, Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley.
As well as working behind the scenes to keep the banks in line on pay, governance and strategy, Budenberg’s big challenge is to decide when and how to offload Lloyds and RBS shares. A sale of Northern Rock would go down well with the chancellor, who could use the spare cash for tax cuts.
22 Franck Petitgas, Morgan Stanley
As global co-head of investment banking, Petitgas’s relationship-banker role spans Europe and Asia. His hands-on deal activity concentrates on equity capital markets and M&A, reflecting his background but also takes in debt transactions.
He combines a low-key public profile with real financial clout and is regarded as one of Morgan Stanley’s classiest acts. The avid yachtsman joined Morgan Stanley in 1993 after starting his career with SG Warburg. Petitgas became chairman of the Tate Foundation in 2008 and is a council member of Artangel and the Serpentine Gallery. He and his wife Catherine are keen collectors of Latin American contemporary art.
23 Charles Harman, JPMorgan Cazenove
JPMorgan Cazenove’s head of UK investment banking joined from Credit Suisse in 2001 as leader of the broker’s technology, media and telecoms group and brought several major client relationships with him.
Harman rose through the ranks on the back of a string of deals for 02, Vodafone and satellite group Inmarsat and won overall responsibility for the corporate finance business.
His close corporate contacts earned him the credit for JPMorgan Cazenove’s ousting of UBS and Goldman Sachs as corporate brokers to Vodafone in 2009.
Harman has been advising Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp on its attempt to buy out the rest of satellite broadcaster BSkyB.
24 Nigel Higgins, NM Rothschild
Higgins became Rothschild’s first chief executive from outside the famous merchant banking family in 2010.
David de Rothschild keeps some control over the family empire by remaining as executive chairman while making Higgins chief executive – the first time power at the firm has been divided along these lines.
Higgins is in charge of day-to-day running of the firm while De Rothschild looks after broader strategy and some key clients.
The jazz enthusiast has spent his entire career at the firm, which he joined in 1982 after studying at Oxford.
25 Jonathan Moulds, Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Moulds is president of the bank’s operations in Europe. In managing the fall-out from Bank of America’s rescue of Merrill, he is seen as a potential chief executive.
Away from banking, the accomplished violin and viola player is best known for his collection of rare stringed instruments, including three golden-period Stradivarius violins. After graduating with a first in maths from Cambridge he started off at Nomura before joining what was then NationsBank to help build its derivatives arm. Moulds is on the board of the London Symphony Orchestra.
26 Philip Robert-Tissot, Citi
Citi may still be struggling to hold on to top dealmakers in the wake of its near implosion in the crisis but the US bank’s UK managing director has continued to haul in the deals.
After advising Kraft on its successful bid to buy Cadbury at the start of the year, Robert-Tissot then advised Chloride on the £997m takeover by Emmerson agreed in July. He has rounded off the year heading the Citi team advising Simon Property Group on its £2.94bn proposed bid for Capital Shopping Centres aimed at stopping CSC from buying the Trafford Centre. Past landmark deals include acting as lead adviser to Ferrovial in its 2006 acquisition of BAA.
27 William Rucker, Lazard
Lazard’s UK chief executive was kept busy early in the year advising Kraft on its successful takeover of Cadbury.
He joined Lazard in 1987 from Arthur Andersen and rose to become head of investment banking and deputy head of the London business in 2000. Rucker works alongside some formidable characters in Lazard’s highly competitive world, including Ken Costa and former JPMorgan Cazenove chief executive Naguib Kheraj. But Rucker is said to be the driving force and main deal doer at the London arm of the firm. He saw out 2010 by advising on Simon Property’s £2.94bn proposed bid for Capital Shopping Centres.
28 Anshu Jain, Deutsche Bank
Jain was made the sole head of Deutsche Bank’s investment bank in July and many tip him to be the German giant’s next chief executive when Josef Ackermann steps down.
Indian-born Jain joined Deutsche in 1995 from Merrill Lynch and was the force behind building its capital markets business. Jain, who earned £6.6m for the final nine months of 2009, has done equal stints in the key markets of London and New York and would also give Deutsche clout in the emerging giant India.
However, Jain does not speak German and Deutsche may be forced to choose between its dual self-images as a global bank and the embodiment of Germany abroad.
29 James Leigh-Pemberton, Credit Suisse
Credit Suisse’s UK chief executive had a great 2009 as the main adviser to the government on the banking bailout and its aftermath. But what should have been a plum assignment this year turned sour when Prudential, whose chief adviser was Leigh-Pemberton, was forced to abandon its blockbuster takeover of AIA and scrap a planned massive rights issue.
Advisers, including Leigh-Pemberton, who is the son of former Bank of England Governor Sir Robin Leigh-Pemberton, came under fire for the fees they charged on the massively costly deal that never was.
30 Lord Levene, Lloyd’s of London
Levene is a true heavyweight with a world view that reaches beyond financial services. After two decades in the defence industry, he was recruited by defence secretary Michael Heseltine to advise on cutting his department’s budget, establishing Levene as a fiercely independent member of the great and the good. After steering Lloyd’s of London from the brink of collapse since 2002, he will stand down as chairman in 2011 to concentrate on chairing his bank acquisition vehicle NBNK Investments. He has hired Gary Hoffman from Northern Rock as chief executive but has pledged not to bid for the nationalised bank for at least a year.
31 Robert Swannell, Marks & Spencer
Swannell takes over as chairman of the high street icon on 4 January but some of the sheen may be taken off his arrival by the troubles at HMV, where he is also chairman. Swannell worked in investment banking for more than three decades, first with Schroders and then with Citi. After helping M&S fend off Sir Philip Green’s bid in 2004, he knows the company well but will have to oversee a period of change as new chief executive Marc Bolland makes his mark. His heavyweight boardroom experience includes senior independent directorships at British Land and 3i, both of which he gave up for the M&S job.
32 Tarun Jotwani, Nomura
Jotwani became the Japanese bank’s chief executive of Europe, Middle East and Africa in April to fill the shoes of Sadeq Sayeed, who left abruptly after masterminding its takeover of Lehman Brothers in Europe and Asia.
Jotwani joined Nomura in the Lehman deal and has been head of global fixed income since late 2008 – a job he will keep after building up the business and making it highly profitable. He spent most of his Lehman career in Asia.
Jotwani’s main challenge in the short term will be to hold on to Nomura’s top former Lehman dealmakers amid intense competition for bankers in Europe and particularly in Asia.
33 Carsten Kengeter, UBS
Former Goldman Sachs banker Kengeter joined UBS two years ago to turn round the bank’s loss-making fixed income, currencies and commodities business and was soon promoted to co-head of the entire investment bank. He helped rebuild the debt unit following more than £36.6bn of writedowns and losses that nearly crippled UBS. In September he was put in sole charge of the operation.
After securing a lucrative signing-on deal, the 43-year-old German was paid £8.2m in 2009, more than any other board member of the bank and four times the pay of group chief executive Oswald Grübel.
34 John Peace, Standard Chartered
Peace is a low-key boardroom heavyweight. In 2009 he added the chairmanship of Standard Chartered to his existing chairman roles at Burberry and Experian. All three businesses have weathered the financial and economic crisis better than most. Peace made his name at Great Universal Stores (later GUS) where he founded what would become Experian in 1980. He became GUS chief executive in 2000 and chairman of Burberry two years later ahead of its demerger. GUS split its existing businesses in 2006 and Peace became chairman of Experian, a job he will leave when a replacement is found. He is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and chairman of the Work Foundation.
35 Michael Spencer, ICAP
Despite seeing the Conservatives returned to government, it was a tough year for one of the City’s richest men. The ICAP chief executive stood down as Tory treasurer to concentrate on business after his interdealer broker issued a profit warning in February soon after he sold £45m of shares. There was then further pressure when the FSA told ICAP to commission an outside report into its business. But ICAP’s performance revived and the year ended on a high note as Prince William helped raise £12m at the company’s annual charity day. To cap it all, a peerage may not be far off for the self-made billionaire.
36 Roger Carr, Centrica
Carr earned his money as Cadbury chairman by standing firm against the aggressive bid tactics of Kraft’s Irene Rosenfeld to get a good price for shareholders. Adding to his impressive portfolio of non-executive roles, the Centrica chairman was recently appointed as the new president of the CBI. He also ruffled feathers by supporting the 50 per cent tax rate for high earners. Carr is spearheading The 30 Per Cent Club campaign to increase female representation on UK boards by 2015 and has long argued that women increase a board’s effectiveness by adding balance when decisions are made.
37 Peter Clarke, Man Group
Man’s chief executive put his stamp on the giant fund of hedge funds with the £1.03bn acquisition of GLG Partners.
The deal brings in Emmanuel Roman and his team’s active-investment capabilities and reduces Man’s reliance on its underperforming computerised AHL fund.
It also sees Clarke emerge from the shadow of Stanley Fink, who handed over control just before the financial crisis.
Man suffered an eighth quarter of client withdrawals in the third quarter after AHL posted a loss the previous year. Clarke trained as a solicitor and worked in investment banking before joining Man in 1993.
38 Richard Ward, Lloyd’s of London
The trained physicist took over as chief executive of the world’s biggest insurance market as an industry outsider in 2006. Ward had made his name by revamping the International Petrol Exchange as ICE Futures where he ended open-outcry trading.
Ward has vowed to exert pressure to maintain market discipline by underwriting syndicates amid increased competition and investment returns depressed by low interest rates. He also wants to make it easier to do business at Lloyd’s so the market can compete internationally.
39 Robert Gillespie, Takeover Panel
The panel’s new director general took over partway through a consultation on new rules following Kraft’s controversial acquisition of Cadbury.
The Kraft bid reopened debate about foreign predators snapping up British companies and the power of short-term investors to force through deals. His proposals focused on increasing disclosure of bidder intentions rather than requiring bigger shareholder majorities and other higher hurdles for a successful bid.
Business secretary Vince Cable has called for stronger measures and Gillespie will be in the thick of the action if M&A activity takes off with many companies sitting on cash piles.
This year will see the departure of Lord Levene, who has dominated Lloyd’s the past decade.
40 David Harding, Winton Capital
In a generally grim time for hedge funds, Britain’s top absolute-return manager was paid a £54m dividend plus £4m in salary in 2009 after betting correctly on swings in commodity prices. All things are relative and those earnings were well down on the previous year when the Cambridge science graduate received £101m in dividends and £17m salary. Harding is an ardent punk rock fan and the man of the moment when it comes to hedge fund reputations. He was the H in the AHL trading programme sold to Man Group. He left in 1997 to launch Winton.
41 Xavier Rolet, London Stock Exchange
The LSE’s beekeeping action man arrived nearly two years ago after the exchange had spent four years defending itself against bids from just about every other major bourse as well as ICAP and Macquarie. As chief executive, Rolet has stuck to internal housekeeping to cut costs while adding new services such as fixed income and has bought rival exchange Turquoise. Rugged Rolet, who has driven in the Dakar Rally three times, may face further big strategic issues if the Singapore Exchange’s acquisition of Australia ASX sparks a bidding war from Asia.
42 Willie Walsh, British Airways
British Airways’ Irish chief executive has had quite a year. He has managed a merger with Iberian Airlines and fought off attacks from Sir Richard Branson to forge his transatlantic alliance with American Airlines. The former pilot has also stood firm against the strike campaign by members of his cabin crew. The strikes cost £150m but BA still returned to profit this year. Walsh has shown strategic vision while asserting the right to run his company in the interests of shareholders and employees.
43 Paul Tucker, Bank of England
Tucker is deputy governor for financial stability at the Bank of England and is Mervyn King’s eyes and ears in the City.
The Cambridge-educated economist is highly regarded in the Square Mile and has long been tipped as a market-savvy successor to King in 2013, though he may now face competition from Hector Sants.
Like King, he hails from the Midlands and is concerned about a shortage of credit for small and medium businesses. He is at the forefront of preparing the Bank for its enhanced role in preventing future financial crises and in seeking international agreements to stop banks jurisdiction-hopping to avoid tougher regulation.
44 Angela Ahrendts, Burberry
The luxury goods company’s American chief executive racked up record profits in the first half as her plan to turn the raincoat maker into a global brand paid off. The daughter of a model, she has been steeped in fashion since carrying Vogue in her bag when at school in New Palestine, Indiana. But Arendts’s vision goes beyond an affinity with her products. She has driven a push into emerging markets that has made her brand a must-have for burgeoning middle classes in Asia and Latin America.
45 John Studzinski, Blackstone
Studzinski built his formidable contacts book at Morgan Stanley and had an ill-fated spell at HSBC before becoming Blackstone’s M&A boss. Deals this year include advising GDF Suez on its merger with International Power.
With business, philanthropic and cultural interests that overlap and attract royalty, politicians and pop stars, he is a force to be reckoned with and the closest thing to a Renaissance man the specialised world of the City now has.
Studzinski ruffled feathers this year by saying private contributions would not be able to make up for the withdrawal of state arts funding.
46 Clive Cowdery, Resolution
Not content with making £150m in four years from the unglamorous business of combining closed life funds, Cowdery reemerged in 2008 vowing to buy underperforming life insurers and asset managers. The acquisitions of Friends Provident and Axa’s UK life business have got Cowdery almost halfway to his £10bn target and no one in the City doubts his determination or the power of his contacts book in the insurance world. But falls in Resolution’s share price suggest enthusiasm for Cowdery’s project may be waning.
47 Michael Hintze, CQS
The “old school” trader is closing his £643m multi-strategy hedge fund to new money in a sign that investors are returning to the industry – or at least to the best managers. Aussie Hintze is undoubtedly one of those and CQS has added about £1.29bn of assets under management since 2009 when panicked investors pulled money out of funds regardless of individual performance.
The CQS Directional Fund is said to have returned about 27 per cent this year compared with just 7 per cent for the average hedge fund and Hintze has decided to shut it to make sure it stays nimble for its existing investors.
48 Robert Chote, OBR
The former director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies is both an ideal choice to head the new Budget-checking agency and also a potential thorn in the side of George Osborne.
The chancellor set up the Office of Budget Responsibility after the Brown years cast doubt on the objectivity of Treasury figures. Chote, who is a former journalist and International Monetary Fund adviser, has vowed to remain an independent voice at the OBR.
The chancellor deserves credit for Chote’s appointment after the Institute for Fiscal Studies dismissed Osborne’s claim that his emergency Budget was progressive.
49 Nigel Boardman, Slaughter and May
This year was a lean time for the UK M&A that is the doyen of corporate lawyers’ bread and butter and last year’s bonanza of government work on the bank bailout was not repeated, but Boardman stayed busy. The first half included UK work on BHP Billiton’s bid for Potash and in the second half he helped face down Tom Hicks and George Gillett in the transfer of Liverpool FC from the US pair to its new owner John W Henry.
Boardman boasts the most FTSE 100 clients of any UK lawyer and will be in demand when the M&A market revs up.
50 Louis Bacon, Moore Capital
The Moore Capital founder’s fortune almost doubled last year to £1.1bn according to the Sunday Times Rich List, making him Britain’s richest fund manager. American-born Bacon is based in London but splits his time between Mayfair and the US, where he owns a 435-acre island off New York and a 171,400-acre ranch in Colorado.
Moore Capital’s trading strategy is based on bets on macro-economic trends. Moore was caught out in May by the Eurozone crisis and after a rocky 2010, its flagship fund was up 2.5 per cent in 2010 at the end of November.
Moore came eighth in a recent ranking of the top 10 hedge funds that have earned a third of the industry’s total returns
for investors.
51 Alan Howard, Brevan Howard
Howard spotted the severity of the crisis early and put most of his funds’ assets into cash and his judgement has been good since. Savvy bets on global trends generated a return of 21 per cent at his main fund in 2008 in a painful year for many rivals. Howard, who moved to Geneva in 2010, is so low key that wealth watchers did not spot him for many years, though his fortune is now estimated at £875m. In his only on-the-record interview, with Bloomberg, he explained: “We prefer to have a low profile. That’s just the way we are.”
52 Crispin Odey, Odey Asset Management
Odey paid himself £28m in 2008 after betting against Britain’s banks at the peak of the crisis and then did well from backing Barclays on the way back up. The current year has been less successful as his flagship European fund has lost money and worries about equities have prompted redemptions. Odey argues these things can happen in the short term when you are predicting the future. The old Harrovian is launching a low-fee asset management arm. Odey is married to Nichola Pease, deputy chairman at JO Hambro Capital.
53 Mark Coombs, Ashmore
Emerging markets are the hot ticket in town and Ashmore’s chief executive is reaping the benefits from his knowledge of those economies. Ashmore’s assets under management jumped more than 40 per cent to £22.7bn last year as client demand increased and asset prices recovered. Coombs led a buyout of Ashmore from ANZ in 1999 when assets were £270m. The Cambridge law graduate sold £192m of shares when Ashmore floated in 2006 and his fortune is estimated at £950m – up by more than £400m in a year.
54 Michael Platt, BlueCrest Capital Management
Platt quit JPMorgan to co-found BlueCrest in 2000 and sold a 25 per cent stake to Man Group three years later. The $24bn fund is now Europe’s third largest and its fast-trading strategy has not produced a down year since it was founded.
BlueCrest dealt a blow to the market for onshore hedge funds in 2010 by liquidating its Ucits fund and moved its headquarters to Guernsey.
Platt spends his money on modern art including a life-size wax gorilla nailed to a wooden cross by a young artist he sponsored.
55 Greg Coffey, Moore Capital
Hedge-fund heartthrob Coffey stunned the City in 2007 when he quit GLG, announcing he would start his own fund and forgoing a £160m golden handcuffs deal. A few months later the emerging markets trader unveiled another surprise when he opted to join Louis Bacon’s Moore Capital instead.
Moore’s emerging markets fund, run by Coffey, is up 3.29 per cent in 2010 to the end of November and his recently launched emerging markets equity long/short fund is up nearly 30 per cent.
Last month he was reported to have bought a 12,000-acre estate on the Isle of Jura.
56 Paul Ruddock, Lansdowne Partners
Ruddock co-founded Lansdowne with Stephen Heinz in 1998 after a career at Schroders and Goldman Sachs.
The firm was an aggressive shortseller of British financial stocks during the financial crisis and made about £50m betting
against HBOS alone.
Ruddock’s flagship UK equities fund performed well in 2009, returning just over 25 per cent. The art lover has been chairman of the Victoria and Albert Museum since 2007. He has donated at least £385,000 to the Conservative Party and is paying Tony Blair a six-figure sum for a series of speeches.
57 George Robinson, Sloane Robinson
Sloane Robinson had a tough time in 2008-2009 when it made only £61m, down from a peak of £341m the year before. The firm blamed poor performance because of volatile stock markets and some of its main funds have been in negative territory this year. Founded in 1993 by Robinson and Hugh Sloane, it focuses on India and other Asian markets. Both men keep low profiles but have donated more than £500,000 to the Tory Party.
58 Ian Wace, Marshall Wace
Marshall Wace’s chief executive set up Marshall Wace with Paul Marshall in 1997 and their fund is one of the most prominent in Europe.
With Marshall devoting more time to support of the Liberal Democrats, Wace is now the main man at the £3.86bn long/short equity fund.
Marshall Wace invests using its own trade optimised portfolio system (TOPS), which trades based on analysts’ recommendations.
Wace’s fortune is estimated to have increased by £100m to £400m last year.
59 Nat Rothschild, Bumi Plc
The heir to the title Baron Rothschild cemented the deal for his big venture in November, putting his £707m Vallar cash shell into Bumi Plc to buy stakes in two Indonesian coal producers. The deal buys into the hot emerging market of Indonesia and makes Rothschild the biggest exporter of coal to China.
In doing so, he is carrying on the family tradition of spotting flows of money and trade and acting boldly. He is supremely well connected with friends such as Peter Mandelson and Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska.
60 Arpad Busson, EIM
“Arki” Busson tends to divide opinion like few others in finance.
Educated in France but based in London, he founded fund of hedge funds EIM in 1992.
The socialite has had a high public profile since, but as much for his personal life as for the performance of his business, which – along with many funds of hedge funds – was caught out by Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme when it imploded in 2008.
Busson has two children by the Australia model Elle Macpherson and was engaged to Pulp Fiction actress Uma Thurman.
He is also well known as a founder of Absolute Return for Kids (ARK), which raises millions to finance and run children’s projects in Eastern Europe, South Africa and the UK.
61 Michael Smith, CVC Capital Partners
CVC was one of the most active buyout firms in the market this year with 13 deals totalling £8.73bn – its biggest ever. Smith, the firm’s British chairman, led a management buyout from Citibank in 1993. While in the US, he was struck by venture capital’s role in the vibrant American economy compared with the stagnant UK environment of the early 1980s. Smith lives in Luxembourg but spends most of his time on the road. CVC became known in the boom for buying big names such as Debenhams and the Automobile Association.
62 Robert Easton, Carlyle
Carlyle was the world’s busiest private equity firm this year.
In the UK?it has snapped up real estate assets such as its controlling stake in residential property developer Fairfield.
Easton is one of the leading figures in European private equity and is the top partner in Britain for the US firm. At the height of the boom he was one of the buyout bosses who went before the Treasury Select Committee. He sits on the industry’s Guideline Monitoring Group which was set up after the Walker Review of the private equity sector.
The chemistry PhD joined Carlyle in 2000 after spending much of the 1990s overhauling BTR (now Invensys).
63 David Blitzer, Blackstone
Blackstone’s European managing partner made a plea for good behaviour by his industry earlier this year by calling for realistic pricing of private equity IPOs. His firm pulled its attempted share sale of Travelport at the last minute in February and quietly shelved plans to float Merlin as what was expected to be the year of the IPO fell flat. It was a quiet 2010 on the acquisitions front for Blitzer who spent much of the year on the attempted sale of Jaffa Cake producer United Biscuits but Blackstone has been among the deals and is still a major force.
64 Martin Halusa, Apax Partners
Private equity is showing signs of revival despite continuing problems in debt markets. Apax Partners is in talks for the biggest leveraged buyout since the crisis with its proposed £5.4bn purchase of Danish cleaning business ISS – albeit from other private equity firms. Halusa shook up his team in June and Apax’s head of its media portfolio left the firm. The Austrian took over running Apax from the British firm’s founder Sir Ronald Cohen six years ago after co-founding the German operations in 1990.
65 Johannes Huth, KKR
KKR’s European arm has been active on the deal front this year, nabbing Pets at Home, Nordic healthcare group Ambea and a stake in Spanish helicopter operator Grupo Inaer in the first few months alone.
The deals are smaller than the mega-buyouts KKR did before the crisis, such as the fraught £11bn buyout of Alliance Boots, and often involve working with another firm or taking a stake.
Huth, the low-profile former Salomon Brothers banker, is seen as a potential leader of KKR – the original Barbarian at the Gate – which went public this year.
66 Michael Queen, 3i
Queen replaced the ousted Philip Yea in January 2009 and moved quickly to raise £732m in a rights issue to cut the private equity group’s debt. His shake-up, announced in September, saw the departure of dealmaker Jonathan Russell and raised questions about 3i’s ability to spot future buyouts.
Queen joined 3i in 1987 and was head of the infrastructure
business before taking the helm. 3i has suffered the same pressures as the rest of the industry but, as a public company, has faced greater pressures than privately held firms.
67 Andrew Tyrie, Treasury Committee
The new chairman of the Treasury Select Committee may be a Tory but he is no establishment figure. After his surprise victory, Tyrie has given the chancellor a rough ride and has extracted a veto for his committee on the appointment of the head of the Office for Budgetary Responsibility. This political outsider combines forensic questioning with damning judgements, making the committee a scarier place than under the generally affable John McFall. City bosses should prepare for the worst if called to give evidence.
68 Tim Breedon, Legal & General
Legal & General’s results have been good this year with cash generation boding well for the dividend. L&G’s focus on the UK has raised doubts about its growth prospects for many years but Breedon has imposed discipline while branching out into emerging markets through bancassurance deals. As chief executive of the biggest investor in the FTSE 100, the Italy lover can wield enormous clout when he chooses. Breedon’s former governance chief Mark Burgess has quit for Threadneedle, which may be a blow.
69 Andy Haste, RSA
The RSA chief executive did not feature in our previous list and has kept a determinedly low profile while reviving the insurer from the mess he inherited in 2003. It was therefore a surprise when Haste approached Aviva in 2010 with a £5bn approach for the bulk of his rival’s UK, Irish and Canadian non-life business.
Aviva rejected Haste’s overture and an entertaining slanging match ensued before the RSA boss retreated.
Look out for more from the hands-on operator, who is linked with just about every European insurance job that comes up.
70 Andrew Moss, Aviva
It has been a rough year or so for Aviva’s chief executive.
After embarrassing personal revelations near the end of 2009, Moss struggled to convince investors that his “One Aviva, twice the value” revamp was paying off. By June, the company’s shares had roughly halved in the three years since Moss took over and RSA made an unwelcome approach for a big chunk of Aviva’s non-life business. Some investors questioned Moss’s sharp rebuff and he will need to maintain the momentum shown in encouraging first half numbers to keep shareholders happy.
71 Tidjane Thiam, Prudential
The Prudential boss should really be higher up in our rankings. After all, he heads an insurer performing strongly in Asia’s booming savings markets. The big negative is of course Thiam’s disastrous and extremely costly £22.96bn bid for AIA, which was scrapped after shareholders declared the deal too pricey and risky. The Pru’s decisions and communications were woeful throughout.
The former McKinsey star from Cote d’Ivoire has hung on to his job so far and must keep the business motoring to restore his reputation with shareholders.
72 Terry Smith, Tullett Prebon
True to his maverick image, Smith has spent the last couple of years calling for the big banks to be broken up even though this is not obviously in the interests of Tullett Prebon, the inter-broker dealer he heads. Never afraid of a scrap, the keen boxer is taking on the fee-heavy fund-management industry with his low-cost Fundsmith venture, in which he is said to be investing a third of his £60m fortune. To make time for Fundsmith and Tullett he recently stepped down as deputy chairman at Collins Stewart after 18 years.
73 Michael Dobson, Schroders
Schroders’ chief executive has headed the fund manager since 2001 when it was in turmoil and has provided a steady hand since. Schroders’ shares hit an all-time high last month after it reported record funds under management of £181.5bn with strong non-UK inflows.
The firm has also been active as an owner, notably in criticising Prudential’s failed bid for AIA and calling for management heads to roll.
74 Martin Gilbert, Aberdeen Asset Management
Five years ago, Aberdeen’s reputation was in tatters amid regulatory probes into sales of split capital investment trusts.
The firm’s recovery is down to chief executive Gilbert, who has expanded Aberdeen through a series of bold deals to boast £178.7bn of assets under management at the end of September.
The keen golfer and angler is still based in Aberdeen, where he co-founded the firm with £100m of assets 27 years ago, but it now employs 1,800 people in 24 countries.
He has argued that Scotland should become a low-tax jurisdiction to attract financial services business.
75 Ian Powell, PricewaterhouseCoopers
PwC’s chairman joined the firm as a graduate trainee in 1977 and rose to make senior partner in 2008. Before management, he worked on high-profile administrations including MG Rover, Marconi and Drax.
Powell has argued against heavy financial regulation and anti-competitive taxation in Britain but the big four accountants will have to tread carefully as they face questions about their dominance and failure to spot problems at banks. PwC, once the clear market leader, is neck and neck with Deloitte to be the world’s biggest accounting firm.
76 David Sproul, Deloitte
The new Deloitte chief executive and senior partner has a hard act to follow in John Connolly, the dealmaker who dominated the UK arm of the global firm as he expanded aggressively.
Sproul joined Deloitte in Connolly’s transformational takeover of stricken Arthur Andersen’s UK business in 2001 and has headed the UK and Europe tax practice since 2006. He has until June to get settled in before Connolly finally hands over the reins and will need to work on building his profile outside the firm to maintain Deloitte’s growth story.
77 John Griffith-Jones, KPMG
The chairman and senior partner of KPMG UK and joint chairman of KPMG Europe also heads Europe, Middle East, Africa and India – the biggest of KPMG’s three regions.
The Eton-educated former Royal Green Jacket joined the firm in 1975 and was a founder of the corporate finance team when it was launched in 1986.
Outside interests include membership of the advisory boards of the Judge Business School and School of Oriental and African Studies. He is also chairman of the Every Child a Chance Trust, which helps children with learning difficulties.
78 Mark Otty, Ernst & Young
The South African marathon and triathlon competitor heads the fourth-biggest accountancy firm’s Europe, Middle East, India and Africa business, which was forged in 2008 to increase cross-border cooperation between its 86 practices.
Otty was the UK firm’s youngest ever chairman at 41 when he was elected in 2006. He advocates further integration of E&Y’s network to follow the Eastward shift of economic power. The evangelical Christian sees encouraging staff to have good values as a key part of his job and gets up at 5am to run before work on most mornings.
79 Edward Bonham Carter, Jupiter
Jupiter’s chief executive braved a frosty market for share offerings in June when Jupiter pushed on with its IPO but succeeded in raising £220m. The great grandson of former prime minister Herbert Asquith and brother of actress Helena combines patrician roots with the popular touch when it comes to communicating with his legion of retail investors.Bonham Carter led a £740m management buyout of Jupiter from Commerzbank in 2007. He gave up day-to-day fund management and stood down as chief investment officer ahead of the IPO.
80 Tim Howkins, IG Group
IG had a shock in 2009 when its spread-betting punters racked up bad debts during the stock market crisis.
That threat receded and chief executive Howkins got on with expanding overseas.
Growth in Australia and other international markets helped drive record annual results announced in July and UK business was not bad at all as market volatility drove demand.
The astronomy enthusiast audited IG’s books and joined in 1999 as finance director.
81 Neil Woodford, Invesco
Woodford runs two of the UK’s biggest funds and oversees more money for private investors than any other manager.
His consistent performance is driven by what he calls “subjective” long-term equity investments. He avoided the dotcom boom and bust and got out of financial stocks early as the crisis loomed.
His most recent high-profile call was to sell almost all his 7.94 per cent stake in United Utilities to back up his warnings that investors will abandon water companies if Ofwat keeps behaving like “Robin Hood” in regulating customer charges.
82 Keith Skeoch, Standard Life Investments
Skeoch has stepped up his shareholder activism in the wake of the financial crisis. RBS climbed down over its bonus formula for senior executives in 2010 after Skeoch criticised it and he also questioned Lloyds boss Eric Daniels’s pay plan. SLI also took the unusual step of speaking out at HSBC’s general meeting to attack the bank over pay. Skeoch was paid £2m last year – more than his chief executive. He also heads the Institutional Shareholders Commitee, which has called for reform of rights issue fees.
83 Philip Gibbs, Jupiter
Gibbs was already one of the country’s star fund managers before he put half his Financial Opportunities Fund into cash just before the credit crunch started in 2007.
After generating a return of 766 per cent since launching the fund in 1997, Gibbs has handed it over to recent hire Guy de Blonay to concentrate on the fast-growing absolute return and international financials funds he launched at the end of 2009.
The Cambridge history graduate worked as an equities analyst specialising in financial stocks before moving into fund management at Jupiter in 1997.
84 Edward Braham, Freshfields
The head of Freshfields’ worldwide corporate practice was our lawyer of the year after nabbing BP as a client from rivals Linklaters.
Braham has led the corporate practice since 2009 after building up the magic circle law firm’s infrastructure and transport practice.
Freshfields’ was the only leading corporate practice to increase revenues in 2010 despite a dire market for mergers and acquisitions with a broad European spread capitalising on relatively strong Continental activity compared with the UK market.
85 Malcolm Sweeting, Clifford Chance
The world’s biggest law firm elected Sweeting last month as senior partner to replace Stuart Popham, who is retiring. Popham will be a hard act to follow after establishing himself as a leading voice in UK policy debates and gaining the ear of Gordon Brown.
Sweeting has said he wants to combine improved profits with leaving a legacy akin to the trailblazing deals of the 1980s and 1990s that turned Clifford Chance into a global giant.
86 David Morley, Allen & Overy
Allen & Overy’s senior partner lays claim to be the best banking lawyer in the country and remains a source of advice for Britain’s bank bosses. During the crisis, the firm advised HBOS on its emergency merger with Lloyds TSB and advised Lloyds on its landmark £2.8bn residential mortgage-backed securities issue in September 2009. Morley recently spent a month based in Germany to help the firm’s expansion there and relocated to New York for three months after the Lehman collapse. He sits on London Mayor Boris Johnson’s business advisory council.
87 Jeremy Parr, Linklaters
Linklaters’ busy corporate rainmaker kicked off this year working on Lloyds Banking Group’s record £13.5bn rights issue after a hectic period advising Lloyds on its HBOS acquisition and the drawn-out decision on whether or not to enter the government’s asset protection scheme.
Parr then stepped up to become Linklaters’ head of corporate but will carry on with client work for the likes of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, United Technologies, Novartis and Dubai World.
Educated at Cambridge, Parr cut his teeth advising NatWest on its defence against the dual hostile bids from Bank of Scotland and Royal Bank of Scotland in 1999-2000.
88 Alison Carnwath, Land Securities
The former investment banker is chairman of Land Securities and this year added a directorship at Barclays to her collection of non-executive posts, which also include Man Group.
Soon after becoming chairman at Land Securities, the straight talking Carnwath told her chief executive Francis Salway that she was giving him six months to turn the business round.
Carnwath was the first female director of Schroders investment bank, where she worked for 10 years before amassing a blue-chip “portfolio” of directorships.
89 Nilufer von Bismarck, Slaughter and May
Married into the family of the former German chancellor, von Bismarck is also the sister of Naguib Kheraj, the former JPMorgan Cazenove chief executive.
But companies from pharmaceuticals to banking come to the Slaughter and May partner for her unflappable advice, not her family connections.
Work for major client Standard Chartered this year included advising on the UK bank’s £3.3bn rights issue and its £321.34m investment in the IPO of Agricultural Bank of China.
Less successfully, von Bismarck advised on Prudential’s scrapped rights for its failed AIA bid.
She is a member of the steering group reviewing the Higgs corporate governance code.
90 Gerald Ronson, Heron International
With Ronson’s 755-feet Heron Tower nearing completion at Bishopsgate, the veteran property tycoon is placing a big bet on demand for office space in the City of London.
Ronson raised eyebrows when he went ahead with the long-planned skyscraper in the recession. The tower will be London’s third-tallest building when it opens in the new year.
Ronson’s career spans decades and includes a spell in prison for his part in the Guinness scandal, in which Ronson says he acted in good faith and was a scapegoat.
91 Vince Cable, Business Secretary
An embarrassing run in with some undercover journalists left Vince Cable’s presence in this list hanging by a thread yesterday. A trenchant critic of the financial sector in opposition, in government Cable’s critique has often been much harsher than some of his coalition colleagues would have liked, and once earnt him the title of anti-business secretary in this newspaper. Despite his newly reduced role, the Strictly Come Dancing contestant and former Shell economist is still reviewing matters such as the takeover rules and the stewardship code and so remains an influence on the City – for now.
92 Francis Salway, Land Securities
What a difference a year makes.
Land Securities’ chief executive was living on borrowed time in 2009 after investors fumed at a £4.8bn loss and demanded a rapid overhaul of the business.
After surviving that test, things are looking rosier as the London commercial property market continues to pick up. Land Securities’ punt on the City’s shopping habit looks to have paid off after the upmarket One New Change mall’s recent busy opening and now the long-hoped-for Walkie Talkie is under way, promising a skyscraper to rival Heron Tower and the Shard in transforming the Square Mile’s skyline.
93 Dominic Barton, McKinsey & Co
McKinsey’s global managing director lives in London as much as he lives anywhere in running the global consultancy firm with tentacles all over the business world. The Canadian took over in early 2009 and soon found himself dealing with a case of insider trading by a McKinsey partner based in California. Steeped in the firm since joining straight from an Oxford economics master’s in 1986, Barton weathered the storm. The marathon runner chaired McKinsey’s Asian business before moving to London.
94 Robin Geffen, Neptune Investment Management
The Neptune founder has had a high-profile year or so, doubling funds under management and leading a shareholder revolt against Prudential’s attempted takeover of AIA. Geffen kept up the pressure on Pru management after the deal was scrapped and called for chief executive Tidjane Thiam to take responsibility for the costs.
He also demanded that Kraft should increase its offer for Cadbury after investing 3.6 per cent of his fund in the confectioner and waiting for a bid.
Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al Thani, QIA
As head of Qatar Investment Authority, the oil state’s sovereign wealth fund, Hamad bin Jassim has placed some heavy bets on the City as a wealth generator.
QIA made £600m by selling some of its stake in Barclays and is still a major shareholder in the bank. It bought luxury store Harrods in 2010 and its position as the largest investor in J Sainsbury makes it a constant source of bid speculation after scrapping an attempted takeover in 2007.
Add in stakes in the landmark Shard of Glass building at London Bridge and Canary Wharf’s owner Songbird and you have an astute backer of Britain’s financial future.
96 Jon Moulton, Better Capital
Moulton was a trailblazer in European private equity but things looked bleak a year ago when he quit Alchemy Partners after rowing with management at the firm he founded.
Now Moulton is back doing deals with Better Capital. He has already acquired Reader’s Digest UK and launched the buyout of defence company Gardner from Carlyle. Moulton sprang to prominence in 2000 with a failed bid for Rover that focused attention on the methods of venture capitalists. He has since been a source of disarming frankness on private equity’s use of tax breaks, accountants’ loss of integrity and the need for Sir Fred Goodwin to resign.
97 Chris Grigg, British Land
Grigg has had a tough baptism since he was named as British Land’s chief executive two years ago. Soon after joining, the former Barclays banker launched a £740m rights issue to reduce debt and sold a stake in trophy City asset Broadgate to the chagrin of former British Land boss Sir John Ritblat.
Grigg has rebalanced British Land to rely less on the City with more properties in the West End. He faced criticism early in 2010 as Land Securities and Hammerson got ahead with new building. But with UBS’s new headquarters and the £340m Leadenhall Building in the pipeline, he is back in the market.
98 Iain Evans, LEK
Evans is global chairman of the UK consultancy firm. He co-founded LEK in 1983 with two former colleagues from Bain & Co and it is now one of the world’s biggest management consultants with offices in 20 cities in Europe, Asia and the US. Evans still spends more than half his time on client work, much of which involves M&A and corporate turnarounds. LEK lurks in the background of hundreds of acquisitions and is the only global strategy firm to have grown from a UK base.
99 Anthony Ward, Armajaro
Commodities have been a hot story in 2010 and Ward’s Armajaro group is at the centre of the action by making big bets on future food production and demand.
Ward stunned the market in July by snapping up 7.3 per cent of the world’s cocoa – enough to make 5.3bn chocolate bars. Unusually, he has taken physical delivery of the beans.
The former dispatch rider earned the nickname “Chocolate Finger” in 2002 after buying more than 200,000 tons of cocoa beans, making £40m in two months.
100 David Thomlinson, Accenture
Thomlinson is the senior managing director of the consultancy’s global strategy and operations on top of his job as managing director of Accenture’s UK and Ireland operations. Britain and Ireland generates £2.1bn of revenues, making it Accenture’s second-biggest market.
Thomlinson took over four years ago after Accenture was dumped by J Sainsbury and withdrew from its £2bn NHS contract.
After a lean time in the recession, he is targeting advice on government cost-saving measures to boost revenues.