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Who's in and who's out?

Simon Davis, Evening Standard
4 Feb 2008


The energy of London is nowhere more reflected than in the shifting balance of power among its thoughtmakers, trendsetters and leaders. Every week, Simon Davis looks at who's in and who's out.

TOUGH AT THE TOP

IN: SPORT
TOM RUSSELL, 55
OLYMPIC LEGACY DIRECTORATE, GROUP DIRECTOR

Russell's job is to mastermind the regeneration of the Olympic site at Lower Lea Valley (new homes, schools, parks, health facilities etc) so that when the Games are over, the whole place doesn't become an expensive ghost town like post-Olympic Athens. Previous urban regeneration roles include the borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and vast projects in Manchester.

IN: ART AND DESIGN
JONATHAN IVE, 39
APPLE, SENIOR VICE-PRESIDENT OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

The British designer of the iPod is described as the "rock star of the technology world". He was also the man behind the iPhone. The lastest rumour is he's working on a project that will change our technology habits forever - well, he's done it before.

FINE TUNING

RADIO
CHRIS MOYLES, 33

The Radio 1 Breakfast Show host is now getting 7.31 million listeners to his programme every day and is snapping at the heels of Terry Wogan on Radio 2, who gets 7.73 million. The audience for Radio 1 is up 430,000 year on year. Hefty Moyles, who once proclaimed himself the "saviour of Radio 1", may have had a point.

ON THE UP

BUSINESS
MATTHEW KEY, 44
O2, CHAIRMAN

The boyish marketing guru has landed the top job at O2. He's quick, analytical and extremely competitive. It was Key who orchestrated the genius deal that saw the Millennium Dome being renamed the O. arena and since then it's taken £50m million from 1.4 million ticket sales.

LITERARY LIFE

DORIS LESSING, 88
AUTHOR

The agreeably prickly writer from West Hampstead has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. She was presented with the award in London as she was too ill to travel to Sweden. However, what the writer of The Golden Notebook and The Grass Is Singing lacks in physical vigour, she makes up for in intellectual rigour. Her literary influence is enormous and she is astonishingly well connected with friends including Sir Tom Stoppard, Michael Frayn, Alan Rickman, Ben Okri and Juliet Stevenson. Her next book, Alfred And Emily, is published in May.

NEW ON THE LIST

FILM
HELENA BONHAM CARTER, 41
ACTRESS

The kooky actress who made her name in Ismail Merchant's Room With A View is garnering excellent reviews for her role in the macabre masterpiece Sweeney Todd alongside Johnny Depp. It was directed by her partner, Tim Burton - the gothic eccentrics live together in Hampstead. She has just won an Evening Standard Film Award. She could easily justify a place in Social London, too.

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