If money makes the world go round, who makes the world of money go round? That’s what the Power List aims to answer, reflecting Spear’s own vantage point: based in London, but with an international outlook.
Every year, Spear’s acknowledges the 100 most influential people shaping the world of private wealth and impacting the lives of ultra-high-net-worth individuals. This selection highlights the figures who pull the strings and wield power, often behind the scenes.
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.
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.
A dozen new entrants – and one re-entry – are profiled in some detail below. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the full table, which includes the top 100.
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The Spear’s Power List 2025 in association with Shamal
Frédéric Arnault
- Sector: Luxury fashion
- Company: Loro Piana
- Title: CEO
LVMH heir Frédéric Arnault took the reins of the French luxury goods group’s Italian ‘quiet luxury’ label Loro Piana as chief executive in June. The 29-year-old earlier served as CEO of LVMH-owned watch brand Tag Heuer. All of Arnault’s siblings also hold management positions across LVMH, and the question on everyone’s lips is who will succeed their father Bernard, 76, when he decides to step down as CEO.
Frédéric joined the family firm in 2017 after an internship with Facebook. He took over as chief executive of Tag Heuer three years later and last year was appointed to a newly created role as CEO of LVMH Watches and to the LVMH board alongside his older brother Alexandre.
All five of Bernard’s children have equal stakes in LVMH through their family holdings. Delphine is CEO at Maison Christian Dior Couture, and Antoine is CEO at Christian Dior SE, the company that holds around 41 per cent of LVMH and through which the family controls the group. Jean, the youngest, is yet to be appointed to the company’s board. Is Frédéric’s move to head the Italian cashmere label setting him up to head the LVMH group?
Richard Tice
- Sector: Politics
- Company: Reform UK
- Title: Deputy leader
Having unveiled a teal-coloured football shirt earlier this year with the name ‘Farage’ emblazoned above the number 10 for supporters to buy (a snip at £39.99!), it can’t be long before Reform UK offers another: with ‘Tice’ splashed above the number 11. That’s because the smooth-talking multimillionaire property developer (he’s a scion of the Bernard Sunley and Sons property family from Northamptonshire) is a shoo-in to become Chancellor if the party’s current polling lead metastasises into voting success at the next general election.
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The 61-year-old Reform deputy leader and major donor was a Tory before his Euroscepticism took him to the side of Brexit – through bodies such as Business for Sterling, Leave.EU (which he co-founded with Arron Banks) and then Leave Means Leave. He was elected as MP for Boston and Skegness in 2024 and now splits his time between Lincolnshire, Westminster and Dubai, where his partner, journalist Isabel Oakeshott, lives.
In the 2024 manifesto, Reform promised to raise income tax thresholds to £20,000 (basic rate) and £70,000 (higher rate), and to slash corporate taxes, raise inheritance tax thresholds, slash stamp duty and loosen planning restrictions for housebuilders – among a swathe of ‘pro-business’ initiatives, many of which are doubtless very close to Tice’s heart.
Kris Jenner
- Sector: Entertainment
- Company: Kardashians/Jenners
- Title: Influencer
The self-styled ‘momager’ has long influenced the lives of her famous family, which includes her daughters Kourtney, Kim and Khloé (all Kardashians), as well as Kendall and Kylie (both Jenners). But the matriarch overshadowed even her own brood earlier this year when she debuted a facelift widely acknowledged as one of the finest pieces of ‘work’ ever done.
What set it apart was not simply the naturalistic appearance that many thought made the near-septuagenarian look younger than her years, but also the candour that Jenner showed. Whereas many celebrities have been known to dodge or deny questions about surgical enhancements, she issued a statement that addressed the matter head-on. What’s more, she credited the author of the impressive work: Dr Steven Levine.
The LA-based surgeon is said to have charged a six-figure fee for the procedure, which has not deterred prospective customers. Far from it. Levine’s diary, already full, is rumoured to have become almost beyond reach, as Hollywood names (and those who wish to orbit them) line up round the metaphorical block for a chance of the same type of rejuvenation. By embracing a conversation that is so often avoided, owning her narrative and – it must be said – by looking fabulous in the process, Jenner has assumed a different kind of power: to shape taste, set a new paradigm and redefine what it means to age in the public eye.
Mukesh Ambani (& family)
- Sector: Multiple
- Company: Reliance Industries
- Title: Chairman & MD
Mukesh Ambani grabbed the world’s attention in 2024 with the lavish wedding and pre-wedding celebrations he threw for his son. The guest list cemented the family’s status as global players, not just the wealthy elite of India.
As the richest person in India, with a net worth of almost $92.5 billion, according to Forbes, Ambani is the figurehead of the ‘Billionaire Raj’. He is the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, the largest private sector corporation in India, which was founded by his late father Dhirubhai Ambani in 1966.
When he took the top job at Reliance Industries in 2006, he diversified the firm’s operations beyond petrochemicals and oil refining, notably with his ventures into digital services via the successful Reliance Jio launch and his significant investments in renewable energy. The company has recently made headlines for signing deals with Meta and Google to develop AI programs and infrastructure in India.
Shinya Yamanaka
- Sector: Biotechnology
- Company: Altos Labs
- Title: Senior scientific adviser
The field of ‘cellular reprogramming’, often cited as the most promising approach to improving human health and lifespan, has largely been built on the groundbreaking research of one man: Shinya Yamanaka. His discovery that cells can be reverted to a primitive state – with the properties of embryonic stem cells – led to a Nobel Prize in 2012 and a slew of other awards and laurels from the scientific community.
Yamanaka, a professor and director emeritus at Kyoto University, has now assumed a role as senior scientific adviser to Altos Labs, a biotech company whose backers include billionaires Yuri Milner and Jeff Bezos. Its big bet is on ‘cellular rejuvenation’, using the so-called ‘Yamanaka factors’, among other scientific advancements, to restore cell health, reverse disease and increase longevity.
With Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, Spotify founder Daniel Ek and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin among other major backers of longevity sciences, the intensity of billionaires’ interest in the field suggests that Yamanaka’s work has the potential to reverberate through human history.
Torsten Bell
- Sector: Politics
- Company: HM Government
- Title: Parliamentary secretary
Elected an MP in 2024, Torsten Bell had already made a name running the Resolution Foundation, widely regarded as the most influential think tank on the Left in the UK.
The Swansea West MP may well have hoped that his 2024 book, Great Britain? How We Get Our Future Back, could be for Keir Starmer what Will Hutton’s 1996 era-defining tome, The State We’re In, was for the New Labour mission. We’ll find out, because, having been appointed to ailing Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s Treasury team as a junior minister in January (and also as a pensions minister), the half-Swedish Bell is now in a position to make change happen.
Already tipped as a future Chancellor, Bell, 43, is known to favour pension reform (scrapping the ‘triple lock’) and taxing wealth, notably through IHT, capital gains and stamp duty, although not a ‘wealth tax’ itself.
‘A dose of Torstenomics is the only thing that can give us hope,’ the BBC’s Amol Rajan has said. Presumably Reeves agrees.
Luca de Meo
- Sector: Luxury goods
- Company: Kering
- Title: CEO
Luca de Meo has been appointed to the top job at French luxury goods group Kering, after leaving carmaker Renault in June. His is the hardest job in fashion. Kering, home to Gucci, Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, McQueen and Boucheron, is battling to reduce its €10 billion debt pile. The French group has lost more than two-thirds of its market value in the past four years, and flagship brand Gucci has suffered a 25 per cent year-on-year fall in sales in the first half of 2025.
The Italian’s first order of business is reviving Gucci, which generates up to 60 per cent of Kering’s sales and 80 per cent of profits, analysts say. All eyes are on the brand’s new artistic director, Demna Gvasalia (formerly of Balenciaga), and Kering also recently confirmed the appointment of a new Gucci CEO, Francesca Bellettini.
Mohammed Saif Al-Sowaidi
- Sector: Investing
- Company: QIA
- Title: CEO
Mohammad Saif Al-Sowaidi became CEO of the Qatar Investment Authority, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, in November 2024.
The QIA is the eighth largest global sovereign wealth fund in the world, with an estimated $577 billion in assets.
Al-Sowaidi was promoted from his role as the QIA’s chief investment officer of Americas. He has been vocal about wanting to increase exposure to the US, where he says the company will invest $500 billion over the next 10 years.
His appointment to the top job comes at a time when Qatar is scaling up its liquefied natural gas (LNG) production by 85 per cent – a move expected to generate significant fiscal surpluses and increase the QIA’s capital inflows in the coming years.
Mirjam Hostetmann
- Sector: Politics
- Company: Juso Party
- Title: President
In June 2024, aged just 24, Mirjam Hostetmann was elected president of Switzerland’s socialist youth party Juso and vice-president of the country’s Social Democratic Party (SP). She has become the face of the movement to institute a federal inheritance tax, which would see a 50 per cent levy on estates and gifts above CHF 50 million.
Under the proposal, funds would be funnelled toward climate action and reshaping the economy.
The country will hold a popular ballot on 30 November. Even if the policy fails to pass into law (as most expect), it has gained enough traction to dent the country’s reputation as an impenetrable fortress for private wealth.
Peter Thiel
- Sector: Technology
- Company: Multiple
- Title: Co-founder & chairman
Peter Thiel has fingers in many pies. In part, this is thanks to his position at the centre of the ‘PayPal Mafia’, the group of tech entrepreneurs who cut their teeth at the payments startup before going on to bestride Silicon Valley.
But he enters the Spear’s Power List this year on the basis of his connections to companies shaping three of the most important megatrends influencing wealth, the economy and much else besides.
As the co-founder of Palantir, he has a stake in the evolving relationship between data, defence and governments. As a backer of nearly a dozen companies in the life sciences space that have collectively raised more than $700 million, he is a pivotal figure in the longevity boom. And through his support of Erebor, a new venture designed as a successor to the defunct Silicon Valley Bank, he aims to help support clients in crypto, tech and defence.
Torsten Müller-Ötvös
- Sector: Luxury
- Company: McLaren, Oyster
- Title: Non-exec
Torsten Müller-Ötvös, the former chief executive of Rolls Royce Motor Cars, is broadening his luxury portfolio with new roles at other upscale British brands: Oyster Yachts and McLaren Group Holdings.
The German was appointed to the board of McLaren Group as a non-executive in July, where he provides strategic leadership to help the management to transform McLaren from a winner on the track and a laggard on the road with its sports cars to a road-going rival to Ferrari as well as F1 champion.
His appointment as strategic adviser to Oyster Yachts, meanwhile, was announced in May. Müller-Ötvös describes Oyster as a brand ‘very similar to what Rolls-Royce is all about, with its relentless striving for perfection’.
Emma Crystal
- Sector: Banking
- Company: Coutts
- Title: CEO
Having begun as a relationship manager at Deutsche Bank, Emma Crystal rose through the ranks before joining Credit Suisse, where she spent 10 years. The Swiss giant might then have gone pop, but Crystal didn’t. After a spell at UBS, she landed one of the plummest jobs in UK private banking as CEO of Coutts.
A year into the post, Crystal has kept a low profile, gently bedding into her first chief executive role. Meantime the bank’s AUM climbed by £2.2 billion in 2024, so something is going right.
Crystal has ushered in a ‘quiet revolution’, hiring a raft of new senior leadership executives from JP Morgan, HSBC and Barclays, all while formulating a new strategy which aims to grow the bank’s appeal to UHNWs and to see it doing more wealth management on top of the banking that it’s long been trusted for. ‘Emma is very impressive and calm,’ says an insider.
Lei Jun
- Sector: Motoring
- Company: Xiaomi
- Title: Founder & CEO
Xiaomi’s founder and CEO has gone from transforming the Chinese smartphone market with sleek, affordable devices to transforming the Chinese luxury car market with a sleek, affordable EV that has caught the attention of Ferrari. Xiaomi’s SU7 four-door grand tourer has won praise for its design, performance and cabin material. Ferrari engineers are said to have studied its development. Xiaomi’s EV success means its factory has become a tourist hotspot in Beijing.
Xiaomi’s success in cars is partly down to its decision to build its cars like it does its phones, mostly using its own parts and offering leading-edge driving and entertainment technology. Lei Jun’s Xiaomi may offer a glimpse of a future where Chinese luxury brands not only rival but even surpass their European counterparts.
Spear’s Power List 2025: The complete rankings
Click on the individual names to be directed to more detailed profiles of each individual on The Spear’s 500 website. The table is ordered by ranking and then alphabetically by surname.
Profiles by John Arlidge, Alec Marsh, Aisha Alli, Kathryn Anderson and Livia Giannotti
