10 John Hutson

chief executive, JD Wetherspoon (9)

Why he is on the list:

He's in charge of Britain's best-known high-street pub chain.

Wetherspoon's 680 plus pubs are, without doubt, the UK's best-known pub chain. Hutson has worked for Wetherspoon (JDW) since the early 1990s, starting as an area manager.

He refers to himself as "team leader" implementing chairman Tim Martin's strategic plans, but he is much more than that — a skilled and canny retailer in his own right.

What the past year has held:

JDW maintained its target of 30 new pub openings during the year, in-cluding two high-profile ones at

Heathrow airport's Terminal 5.

It now has units operating at airports across the country and also stepped up bedroom lodge openings. Real ale continues to be one of the key retail components of its pubs and its recent national beer festival broke all records, with more than 2.5 million pints sold over the three weeks. The company also struck a deal with the Campaign For Real Ale (Camra), entitling newly-signed-up members to exchange vouchers at the bar of JDW outlets for real ale, boosting Camra membership.

Challenges ahead:

Maintaining margins while food, cask ale, coffee and spirit sales tick up.

Plus, turning into a reality the chairman-endorsed promise to improve standards of table clearance and overall service. At least there's no home participation in Euro 2008 to drive punters into other pubs that make a feature of big-screen action.