Who are the most influential, consequential and powerful people in the world of private wealth? It’s a question Spear’s has been asking annually since 2023, when we published our inaugural Power List. And it’s a revealing exercise, I can tell you.
Of course, there are the names you would expect: the CEOs of the financial institutions entrusted to guard and grow the assets of the wealthiest people on the planet, those who run the law firms that represent their interests, and the head honchos of consultancies that help to forge new fortunes. Then there are the tastemakers: the executives and entrepreneurs who build the products that persuade HNWs to part with their hard-earned cash, or create the places they yearn to visit. You’ll spot some connectors and convenors, too — both from the UK and further afield. Just like Spear’s itself, the list’s centre of gravity is in London, but it has a distinctly international outlook.
Each year, different people enter and leave the list. Sometimes this is because they take on or depart from a major role. Other times it’s a reflection of the ebb and flow of the forces shaping the world we cover. For instance, this year our selection includes a scientist leading the field of longevity, the entrepreneur behind a new type of bank, an official from the Trump administration, a rising Westminster power, one of India’s hard-charging billionaires, influential figures from the Middle East, Chinese trailblazers and even the trend-setter behind a new type of facelift.
Elsewhere, we have exclusive interviews with a knight of the realm (sailor Sir Ben Ainslie), the son of the Queen (Tom Parker Bowles) and the woman who founded the Giving Pledge alongside Warren Buffet and Bill and Melinda Gates (Olivia Leland).
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There’s a brilliant feature by Rupert Neate about the bidding war for fossilised dinosaur bones that has broken out among billionaires and another by Livia Giannotti, who speaks to Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings about the rising popularity of private ski resorts, such as his own corner of Utah, Powder Haven.
I often say our Arcadia section would be a rather good miniature magazine all by itself, and this issue is no different. Nick Foulkes dips his toe in the art world with a column recounting his experience as a curator (is there anything the man can’t do?); Sam Leith harkens back to the good old days of Harrods; Simon Usborne goes in search of stolen booty; I meet private members’ club aficionado Jamie Caring; and Vassi Chamberlain, I’m pleased to say, makes her debut in the magazine, charting the rise of St Barths as the billionaire’s favourite place to spend the festive season.
Liquid Lunch, this time, is with Dan Nardello, the man at the helm of his eponymous international private investigation firm, which has made headlines for its work on behalf of French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, and for cleaning up some of the mess left behind by FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. He reveals why people talk to his investigators – even when, sometimes, maybe they shouldn’t.
We also meet the man behind the wheel at French supercar marque Bugatti, Mate Rimac, who lays out an ambitious 10-year plan in which the word ‘compromise’ does not feature. And there’s a dispatch from yours truly, filed from the shores of Lac Léman, where one of Geneva’s most blue-blooded private banks has just unveiled a new headquarters designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron.
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As if all of that weren’t enough, there’s a review of the new Rosewood hotel in Amsterdam, a treatise on the trend for whisky bottles as objets d’art, and Sarah Royce-Greensill looks through her loupe at an inventive new collection from jeweller Boucheron.
And finally, the ranks of our regular columnists are bolstered by former Spear’s Impact Award winner James Chen, who makes a guest appearance to advance the case for altruistic risk-taking and what he calls ‘moonshot philanthropy’.
I hope you enjoy the magazine.
