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This week, The London Standard is unveiling The Standard 100, a list of the top hundred men and women shaping the capital in 2024.
The line-up covers a range of categories and sectors from politics and media through art, music, food, to science and medicine.
Today the Standard can reveal those named among the categories for Business and Tech.
The list for business includes a mix of respected business leaders, disruptive entrepreneurs and AI pioneers.
Paul Drechsler banged the drum for London’s vast private sector in his role as head of BusinessLDN, while Philip O’Ferrall has turned the Outernet into what some have called London’s most popular visitor attraction.
London’s world leading tech sector has spawned some of the world’s most successful unicorns, including banking app Revolut headed by Nikolay Storonsky.
Cybersecurity is also an area of global expertise in London with Darktrace, co-founded by Poppy Gustaffson, now a Labour minister, and currently headed by Jill Popelka.
The City, London’s all conquering financial powerhouse, which also includes Canary Wharf and the hedge fund cluster in Mayfair, as well as the historic Square Mile, is also represented, in the form of Clare Woodman, Morgan Stanley’s London based European head.
Business
John Boumphrey CEO, Amazon UK
If you haven’t watched Amazon Prime or shopped at Amazon Fresh, you almost certainly get deliveries from Amazon, which has transformed the way we shop. The likeable and modest Boumphrey is its London mastermind.
Paul Drechsler Chair, BusinessLDN
BusinessLDN is a not-for-profit organisation which aims to make London the best city in the world in which to do business. Its jovial, well connected former Irish chair — an ex-CBI president and current president of the Society of Chemical Industry — who stepped down to be succeeded by Sir Ken Olisa last year, is passionate about improving his adopted city and helping Londoners living on the margins.
Colin Waggett CEO, Third Space
London is one of the most fitness-obsessed cities in the world, and the driving force behind the capital’s most successful luxury gym is Colin Waggett, who’s managed to convince even the city’s busiest businessmen “to get down and give him five” from Moorgate to Marylebone. It’s the new nucleus of power and a place where deals are cut.
Philip O’Ferrall CEO, Outernet
O’Ferrall is chief executive of Outernet — London’s most visited tourist attraction in 2023. At the forefront of the revolution in media and broadcasting, he sits on boards with Brian Eno and Peter Gabriel and is a prominent member of the Emmy and Bafta committees. He’s interviewed on Page 70.
Andrew Carnie CEO, Soho House
The former president, now CEO of London’s most famous social club, is putting the fizz back into an establishment which some fear had grown tired and tapped out. He’s the first to hold the coveted position since founder Nick Jones stepped down; and if the launch party for Soho Mews House is anything to go by, he’s already holding the A-list in the palm of his hand.
Poppy Gustafsson Investment minister
The minister of state for investment in the UK is a protégée of Keir Starmer — and previously of Mike Lynch. She’s due a life peerage any day now for her work as co-founder and head of Darktrace, the UK’s top cybersecurity firm
Tech
Sir Demis Hassabis Computing and AI specialist
A 2024 Nobel laureate in chemistry, fellow of the Royal Society and CEO of DeepMind Technologies, Hassabis is a UK government AI adviser and the country’s top computer scientist. He received a knighthood for his services and is a staunch advocate for AI regulations — arguing that without curbs, superintelligent computers will wipe us out.
Mustafa Suleyman AI entrepreneur
A former colleague of Hassabis, Suleyman left DeepMind in 2022 and is now the CEO of rival firm Microsoft AI. An Oxford dropout, he is also the co-founder of Inflection AI, a generative AI company, whose products include AI personal assistants.
Elon Musk Entrepreneur
He may live in California — or is it Texas now? — but it would be naive not to recognise the seismic influence which the South African native has over us all; Londoners included. As the owner of Twitter, now X, he stands behind an inflammatory and politicised landscape without precedent, and has become a crucial architect of the US election, the outcome of which will affect the entire world.
Chris Wigley Health pioneer
Chris Wigley is the tech trailblazer who, until recently, steered Genomics England into the future, where DNA meets cutting-edge innovation. He's now the co-founder and CEO of Aneira Health, a cutting-edge women's healthcare provider harnessing computational biology and AI.
Matt Key UK Enterprise Director, Apple
The man who brought the iPhone to Britain is now Apple’s enterprise director for the region. He is responsible for customer experience and driving revenue — a relentless job.
Jill Popelka CEO, Darktrace
Cybersecurity has become one of the leading issues of our time — just ask CrowdStrike after last summer’s airport debacle. Partnered with tech giant Microsoft, Darktrace is the industry leader — and in safe hands following the recent appointment of industry expert and London
Money
Clare Woodman, CEO of Morgan Stanley & Co International and head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa
The most powerful woman in the City, Woodman sits at the top of the world’s most prestigious firm (sorry, Goldman Sachs). She joined the company as a lawyer in the
global capital markets division in 2002 and has stealthily worked her way to the summit. She also makes good use of her platform to promote women’s and various minority groups across London.
Nikolay Storonsky Co-founder and CEO, Revolut
Revolut is the app rich people thank for cancelling the exchange rate on their non-stop international transactions — and thus makes spending here more attractive. The nine-year-old fintech unicorn has now been valued at £35 billion, making it Europe’s most valuable start-up.
Martin Lewis Financial journalist and broadcaster, founder of Money Saving Expert
The money saving expert helps tens of thousands with his smart and honest advice about their loans, mortgages, pensions and savings. The north Londoner is also not afraid to speak out about the injustices and unfairness he sees around him. National Treasure status ain’t far off.
