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Influentials 2009
Gideon Spanier2 Jan 2009
Influence is always shifting in London but it is changing even faster in the recession. As we move into 2009, opportunities are opening up for savvy new players.
The Evening Standard charts the progress of those Influentials — the people who wield power and shape our thinking — in our annual magazine The 1000: The Most Influential People In London, published in October, in a weekly column in the newspaper and on our website standard.co.uk.
Now, at the start of the new year, we have surveyed our Influentials panel of writers and specialists from both inside and outside the Standard to pick out the stars of the future. Not all of them may end up making the final cut when we publish the next edition of The 1000 but these are the people who will make an impact on London in the next 12 months.
POLITICS
Chuka Umunna, 30
Labour candidate for Streatham
Raised in Brixton, Umunna is destined for this safe Commons seat as soon as this year if Gordon Brown calls an election. His willingness to talk about life after New Labour has already prompted talk of him being “the next Labour leader but one”. Umunna, of Nigerian, Irish and English descent, is a lawyer but bats away further comparison with Barack Obama: “I am quite happy being Streatham's Chuka Umunna.”
David Gauke, 37
Conservative MP
A rising Tory star who joined the Commons in 2005. The MP for South- West Herts made his name as a clever and tough questioner of ministers on the Treasury Select Committee and is tipped for the shadow cabinet. Gauke may be an Oxford contemporary of George Osborne but he is no Hooray, having been educated at an Ipswich comprehensive.
RUNNING LONDON
Steve Reid, 45
Leader of Lambeth Council
Now responsible for housing on London Councils, he will be a key player in dealing with the crisis in the capital's property market and
in handing out some of the Government's £5 billion housing funding to the boroughs. Labour to the core, he has been leafleting since he was seven years old. But he has struggled with a housing funding black hole in Lambeth.
Leo Boland, 56
Greater London Authority, chief executive
The former boss of Barnet council won the top civil service job at City Hall despite not being Boris Johnson's first choice. He has spent his working life in public services, including the Treasury, so is well qualified for the job of running the GLA. where he will oversee the Mayor's staff cuts. Must watch his own expenses after he was criticised at Barnet for foreign jaunts.
LITERARY LIFE
Richard Milward, 24
Novelist
His debut, Apples, about teenagers doing drugs and more on a Middlesbrough council estate, was published to acclaim in 2007 and he is currently adapting it into a screenplay. Faber publishes Milward's second novel, Ten Storey Love Song, in February — not bad for a fine arts graduate just out of Central St Martins.
David Peace, 41
Author
The prize-winning author is set for a big year: The movie of his book, The Damned United, starring Michael Sheen as Brian Clough, is released in March, while a three-part drama, based on his books, The Red Riding Quartet, will be aired on Channel 4 soon after. Then there's his new novel, Occupied City, coming out in May.
THE ARTS
Roger Hiorns, 33
Artist
His installation, Seizure, a derelict council flat in Elephant & Castle filled with 90,000 litres of copper sulphate which solidified into stunning crystals, captured art-lovers' imaginations last autumn. Birmingham-born Hiorns, who trained at Goldsmiths in London, could just be one of the leaders of the post-Young British Artists generation.
Florence Welch, 22
Singer
The south London-born singer fronts Florence and the Machine and was named the Critics' Choice for the 2009 Brit Awards for her folksy, stripped-down songs. With a debut album out in May, Welch's dark lyrics and bluesy voice have already got her snapped up by Island Records.
Emma Rice, 41
Artistic Director, Knee High Theatre
She divided the critics with her stage rendition of that adored 1940s movie, A Matter of Life and Death, but Rice's experiment with Noel Coward's Brief Encounter, making a perfect marriage of video and theatre, worked such wonders that it has vaulted her Knee High company into the front rank.
Sally Hawkins, 32
Actress
Raised in south-east London, her big break was in Mike Leigh's Happy Go Lucky for which she is up for Best Actress at the Golden Globe Awards on 11 January. Hawkins is now busy with a Nick Hornby-scripted movie, An Education, and the lead role in The Roaring Girl, a biopic of Irish nationalist Bernadette Devlin.
PROPERTY
John Wallace, 52
Director, Qatari Diar UK Development Company
Has a big budget to spend after being recruited in October to lead the Qatari sovereign wealth fund's investment drive from a penthouse base in Mayfair's Grosvenor Street. Trained as a chartered surveyor, Wallace is a former head of property development at Royal Bank of Scotland and switched to investment bank Morgan Stanley in 2005. He got out of banks at the right time.
Jon Hunt, 55
Property investor
The ex-Foxtons boss sold his agency for £370 million at the peak of the market in 2007 and is now lunching frequently with bankers who are advising him on how to get back into the market — possibly as a buyer of cheap housing land or by taking a sizeable stake in a housebuilder. Everyone wants to know if Hunt will call “the bottom” of the market.
NEW MEDIA
Anthony Rose, 36
BBC controller, Vision & Online Media
Credited with being the driving force behind iPlayer, which has proved a huge success since its launch a year ago. Rose was promoted by the BBC in November to an expanded role and has been busy revamping the iPlayer service. It's a measure of its popularity that there is talk of rivals ITV and Channel 4 adopting the same technology.
Gerry O'Sullivan, 44
BSkyB product development director
The man responsible for launching Sky's popular high-definition TV service, which now boasts more than 500,000 subscribers in the UK. Technical whizz O'Sullivan is set to introduce his next brainwave later this year — 3D-TV for the living room.
FASHION
Pablo Flack, 36 and David Waddington, 38
Entrepreneurs
This pioneering duo mix food with fashion and art. They tempted Scarlett Johansson to Hackney to visit their cabaret restaurant Bistrotheque, and are also the brains behind “pop-up” venues such as Flash at the Royal Academy, where they hosted a memorable party for Katie Grand's forthcoming style mag Love. What better way to beat recession than setting up a temporary bar and then moving on after a few months?
Louise Goldin, 29
Designer
Graduating from Central St Martins in 2005, Goldin's entire degree collection was immediately snapped up by Selfridges and she has had two capsule collections in Sir Philip Green's Topshop. She injects sex appeal back into knitwear with her figure-hugging designs and won the Emerging Talent prize at November's British Fashion Awards.
FOOD
William Curley, 36
Chocolatier
Superb chocolate-maker who works with wife Suzue from their Richmond shop. Scottish-born Curley honed his skills at the Savoy and Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons and has picked up fistfuls of awards from the catering industry.
Martin Kuczmarski, 35
Director of operations, Soho House Group
Polish-Italian hotel operative who has been hired by Soho House founder Nick Jones and his business partner Richard Caring, owner of Scott's and The Ivy, to expand the group of clubs. Kuczmarski is overseeing a string of projects — the opening of the 41-bedroom Dean Street Townhouse in September; adding bedrooms to Shoreditch House, and a Soho House in Berlin.
ENVIRONMENT
Mark Constantine, 56
Founder, Lush cosmetics
Constantine, founder in 1994 of Lush, has been a longtime supporter of environmental causes. The company has taken a strong stance against animal testing of cosmetics, and Constantine has supported anti-whaling direct action group Sea Shepherds and a number of UK direct action groups campaigning against new roads and airports.
Olivia Chessell, 20
Plane Stupid activist
Chessell, a leading member of the anti-airports campaign group, shot to prominence with the organisation's bold occupation of a runway at Stansted in December. Formerly a pupil at Croydon's Brit school for the performing arts, Chessell is rapidly becoming poster-girl for a new generation of green militants — she also protested on the roof of Parliament last February.
EDUCATION
David Buckingham, 54
Institute of Education, University of London
Hired by Ed Balls to investigate the impact of the commercial world on modern childhood. His study follows concern from parents that TV, advertising and increasingly sexualised images of girls are damaging children's lives.
Professor Buckingham, a pioneer in researching this area, is due to report in March.
Robin Alexander, 67
Director, Cambridge Primary Review
The biggest review of primary education in England for 40 years is due to report in the spring. However, unlike the Government's own inquiry into the primary curriculum, Professor Alexander's is truly independent of ministers and will certainly have something to say about the discredited Sats tests. The sheer scale of his investigation will make it hard for politicians of all persuasions to ignore.
FINANCE
António Horta-Osório, 44
UK chief executive, Santander
The London-based boss of the Spanish banking giant has quietly become one of the most powerful bankers in Britain, running Abbey and taking over both Alliance & Leicester and the savings arm of troubled Bradford & Bingley in quick succession. Santander's success in avoiding the worst of the credit crunch is giving Portuguese-born Horta-Osório a free hand to grab market share from ailing rivals.
Robert Chote, 39
Director, Institute for Fiscal Studies
The former Financial Times economics editor has become a highly regarded judge of the UK economy — the expert whom the media and the City turn to for reaction after any new Treasury or Budget initiative. Chote has proved a more articulate critic of the Government than the Tory front bench. Published his first book at the age of 20.
RETAIL
Nick Dargan, 47
Partner, Deloitte & Touche
One of Britain's leading insolvency experts Dargan is now overseeing — along with colleagues Neville Kahn and Dan Butters — the high street's biggest casualty to date: Woolworths. As the recession deepens expect more insolvencies to keep Dargan busy. He has been involved with many of Britain's biggest corporate collapses, including BCCI and ITV Digital. Also helped save football clubs Leicester City and Ipswich Town.
James Bidwell, 43
Managing director, Anthropologie Europe
The Old Etonian former boss of VisitLondon was headhunted by US fashion chain Anthropologie in September to head its European expansion. The Regent Street opening this summer in the former Wedgwood china outlet will be one of the most eagerly awaited of 2009 (on an admittedly short list).
TV & RADIO
Danny Kleinman, 53 and Johnnie Frankel, 44
Rattling Stick, co-founders
Director Kleinman and producer Frankel run the hottest advertising production company in London, rated as the best in the business by Campaign magazine, with a slew of projects on both sides of the Atlantic despite the recession. The success of Kleinman, who made his name directing the title sequence for the James Bond movies, is attracting other directors to Rattling Stick.
Roy Ackerman, 48
Managing director, Fresh One
Ackerman is the longstanding creative director of indie TV firm Diverse, where he mentored rising stars such as future BBC3 controller Danny Cohen. Now he has been recruited by Jamie Oliver to expand the chef's TV production company Fresh One. Ackerman shares Oliver's love of agenda-setting TV, helping underprivileged kids enjoy the arts on shows such as Ballet Changed My Life.
SPORT
Ivan Gazidis, 44
Arsenal chief executive
Born in South Africa but raised in the UK close to Highbury, Gazidis quit his US-based job as deputy commissioner of Major League Soccer to take over as Arsenal chief administrator this month. Faces a tough start after a boardroom split which saw director Nina Bracewell-Smith quit and there are fears that manager Arsene Wenger could be lured away by a Spanish club.
Tom Rees, 24
England and Wasps rugby player
Tipped as a future England captain, the London Wasps flanker is the favourite to fill the leadership void currently hampering the national side's development. If and when he does take the armband from Steve Borthwick it will move Rees one step nearer eclipsing Liz Hurley as the most famous pupil of Harriet Costello Comprehensive in Basingstoke.
* The Influentials - see the full list
Reader views (3)
No one in classical music, either - you know, real music?
- Liz, London,UK, 07/01/2009 13:24
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Don't bother listing anyone in science or technology - that might have required doing some research or talking to people outside your set.
- Ascientist, London, UK, 05/01/2009 16:13
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Sally Hawkins is a revelation and rightly mentioned in your influentials 2009 article. I wish to see more of her and good luck with the Golden Globes and anything else that might follow.
- Rena, L, 04/01/2009 03:23
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