Sir Michael Bibby
If Liverpool still had a Liverpool Shipowners Association, then Sir Michael Bibby, chief executive of Bibby Line Group, would probably be president, just like several of his forbears who managed the fortunes of the UK’s oldest surviving shipping company for more than 200 years. However, there are no other shipowners left in Liverpool, and Sir Michael, who took over the family business in 2000, has overseen its rapid diversification into less-cyclical areas such as financial services, logistics, supermarkets and burial sites. Sir Michael, an accountant who was educated, like his father, at Rugby and Trinity College, Oxford, is a throwback to an older generation of Liverpool families, which channelled part of their wealth into local charities, such as the Birkenhead Boys Club.
Warren Bradley
A successful Capital of Culture year has boosted the Liberal Democrat who leads Liverpool City Council. His job is never assured – predecessor Mike Storey was ousted in a very public coup in 2005 despite presiding over Liverpool’s renaissance. Mr Bradley is more dogmatic but remains a pragmatist and has maintained a good relationship with the business community. Criticised by some for being too ready with an aggressive soundbite, he argues that it is a politician’s job to talk straight. His diplomatic skills will be tested to the full as Liverpool and its five neighbouring councils form the Liverpool City Region this year. A serving firefighter, he keeps in touch with constituents by continuing to work night shifts on the tender at the Toxteth station. “There’s no better way to see whether your policies are actually having an impact on the ground,” he says.
Mark Chadwick
A new arrival on the Merseyside business scene, Mark Chadwick brings a useful outsiders’ perspective to Professionaliverpool, which represents the city’s legal and finance community. His job is to ensure that the ancient firms speak with one voice and promote the city globally. He has already scheduled trips to London and Shanghai to pitch the city to investors and is on the board of the Liverpool Shanghai World Expo. Mr Chadwick kept his family home in Liverpool while working in the City of London for Aon, the insurance group. That followed a career with TSB, Sedgwick, Marsh and as managing director of Opus Consulting. Looking to work back in the area to spend more time with his children, he could not believe his luck when the Professionaliverpool job came up.
George Downing
George Downing started with a snooker club at 17, which he sold to a friend and started a lucrative phase investing in student digs. More than 20 years later, Mr Downing has a £500m ($902m) portfolio stretching from student villages to 1m sq ft of offices in his home city, including the elegant Port of Liverpool Building. The down-to-earth Everton FC supporter keeps his property assets in a Jersey-based trust, lives in Verbier, Switzerland, and sends his children to school in Spain. In Liverpool, his challenge is learning to live with all the national and regional newcomers to the Liverpool property scene, demanding ever-higher standards for the city’s built environment. It is a challenge that Mr Downing is meeting head on, adding to his senior management team and outbidding for key sites such as The Capital.
Frank Field
MP for Birkenhead since 1979, Frank Field has become a respected voice in and outside the Labour party. His latter-day role as a thorn in the side of the establishment has not diminished his support among traditional Labour supporters. It was no surprise to find him among the rebels calling for Gordon Brown to go. He compared Mr Brown’s thwarting of his welfare reforms during Labour’s first administration with the campaign of the far-left Militant Tendency to get him deselected in the 1980s. Detecting the rise of support for far-right parties among white working class voters, his latest move is to team up with aristocratic Tory Sir Nicholas Soames to call for a cap on immigrant numbers.
Bernard Hogan-Howe
Bernard Hogan-Howe, chief constable of Merseyside Police since 2004, has done more than anyone to rid Liverpool of its reputation as a crime-ridden city with an uncontrollable gang and drugs culture. Although shocking events, such as the gangland murder of 11-year-old Rhys Jones in Croxteth, continue to colour outside perceptions, crime in Liverpool has been falling faster on Mr Hogan-Howe’s watch than in any other big police force. A highly approachable figure, he has forged strong links with local communities and taken a tough line, not only on violent crime, but also anti-social behaviour. He is also not averse to criticising politicians, health and safety rules, and judges’ lax sentencing policies – a stance which just might scupper his chances of replacing Sir Ian Blair as the next Metropolitan Police Commissioner.
Rod Holmes
The man who has spent eight years overseeing Liverpool’s biggest private investment, the £1bn Liverpool One retail and leisure district, turned 65 this year. However, he is not hanging up his hard hat just yet. Mr Holmes, a Yorkshireman who has grown to love Liverpool, will remain a consultant to developers Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster’s property company. He will also take over as chairman of the Mersey Partnership in October. He is expected to bring to the role his unstinting attention to detail and ability to get things done. “I finish at Grosvenor on the Friday and start the new job the next week but I have promised my wife I’ll take the Monday and Tuesday as holiday,” he says.
Phil Redmond
Grange Hill, the show that launched Phil Redmond’s TV career, may have ended this year but its creator shows no sign of stopping. The public face of the Capital of Culture year and, for many, of Liverpool itself brought much-needed credibility to the company delivering it. He himself likened the chaotic arrangements to a Scouse wedding that would work out on the day. His socialist roots have enabled him to open many doors in government to the Liberal Democrat-controlled council. This year, he has also become chairman of the National Museums Liverpool, the largest collection outside London. A professor at Liverpool John Moores University, he believes the city’s creative talent and broadband infrastructure can make it a media hub in the future. “Culture means commerce and commerce means cash,” he says. He already has a CBE for his services to broadcasting, and is tipped for higher honours after Capital of Culture year.
Lorraine Rogers
The chief executive of the Mersey Partnership embodies many of the region’s passions. She is chairman of the Royal Philharmonic and Tranmere Rovers Football Club, Merseyside’s third team, and a director of RadioCity, the radio station. Ms Rogers was an investment banker with Hambros when she saw the potential for dealmaking in the north-west and moved to Liverpool. She is leaving Tranmere at the end of the season after a decade because of disillusion with the state of the game and believes smaller clubs could soon go under. She will remain on the board of the Football League. Leaving the club should allow her more time to focus on her key job attracting inward investment and tourism.
John Whittaker
The powerful billionaire owner of Peel Holdings, the big transport and property group, John Whittaker recently treated a ferry-load of dignitaries to a trip down the Manchester Ship Canal, which he owns, to launch his Ocean Gateway concept. Few questioned the strategy of linking gems in a regional crown; the freight passing through his Port of Liverpool, tourists into his Liverpool John Lennon Airport, consumers lapping up his out-of-town shopping centres, new waterside homes on his dockland in Birkenhead and North Liverpool, corporate offices at his 200-acre Media City UK in Salford. Even his biggest fans in the audience, though, may have wished that Mr Whittaker would spend more time on the economic argument for his case rather than tales of a thrifty Lancashire upbringing, the bitter memories of boarding school, impressive to a point but not enough to disarm the planning gatekeepers.
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