Andy Stewart
1 Racehorse fanatic Andy Stewart is currently hogging the headlines on account of his audacious £1.4 billion tilt at Britain’s oldest independent finance house, Close Brothers. The bid, spurned by Close, is the kind of deal Cenkos (named after Stewart’s most successful steeplechaser) relishes, being one-tenth the size of its targeted rival. A veritable City celebrity, 56-year-old Stewart started his career as a stockbroker in 1969 and set-up Cenkos two years ago following his ousting from Collins Stewart, which he had co-founded, by arch-rival Terry Smith.

Joel Plasco
2 The highly regarded Collins Stewart chief executive is still in his mid thirties yet presides over the most active IPO broker in the AIM space. By the end of November his group had raised £534 million as broker to 13 clients (and nominated adviser to 12). The company, which grew profits by 64 per cent to £52 million in the half-year to June, recently moved further into the US with the purchase of a small-cap technology specialist investment bank. Having joined in 1999, former solicitor Plasco left Collins Stewart to set up venture capitalist group NewMedia Spark, but was lured back by Terry Smith five years later to direct the group’s inter-dealer broking
arm before being promoted to his current role last year.

Neil Johnson
3 Johnson, an Ontario business graduate, kick-started his finance career in 1993 as a technology analyst in the relaxed environs of Vancouver, British Columbia. He moved to Canaccord’s corporate finance team three years later and arrived on UK shores in 1999. He became head of Corporate Finance in 2003. Johnson reckons he’s raised over $3 billion on both sides of the Atlantic and his firm is easily the most active broker and adviser to AIM’s international companies.

Jonathan Brown
4 Brown is head of corporate finance at Landsbanki Securities, which,
having previously subsumed Teather & Greenwood, went on to buy broker Bridgewell. These deals have made Landsbanki – in a very short space of time – the leading broker on AIM in terms of the number of retained clients.

Richard Feigen
5 The wily Mr Feigan, a man never short of an opinion – or a deal for that matter – was last seen grinning like a Cheshire cat on the news that his firm had become the most active adviser to London Stock Exchange companies, edging out the mighty UBS Investment Bank in the process. In all, Seymour Pierce advises 101 companies
and is easily the leading nomad to AIM companies. On the broking front, his firm sits behind Landsbanki and Collins Stewart in the league tables, but given his – and his team’s – prolific transaction appetite, this could all change soon.

Richard Plackett
6 This Cambridge graduate has been the lead manager of Merrill Lynch’s £250 million UK Smaller Companies fund for the past five years. His firm is actually the biggest backer of the AIM market and is currently invested in over 150 companies. Before staking his cash, the former international bridge player and 3i venture capitalist likes to reassure himself that management teams ‘can control growth as well as possessing salesmanship skills and strategic clarity’.

Roger Whiteoak
7 AAA-rated fund manager Roger Whiteoak (another Cambridge graduate) is lead manager for the AXA Framlington UK Smaller Companies Fund, which has £187 million under management. He is ably assisted by Brian Watson, a fund manager on the UK small-cap desk who is also responsible for Framlington Innovative Growth Trust and lead manager for the AXA Framlington pair of AIM VCT funds.

Stuart Sharp
8 It’s been another strong period for this straight-talking Borders-born Scot, his Rensburg UK Smaller Companies fund having recorded one of the sharpest performances over the past year with no less than 28.6 per cent growth. The secrets of his investing success? A focus on ‘growth’, a healthy dose of ‘pragmatism’ and an old-fashioned willingness to get out and meet management.

Oliver Hemsley
9 Fresh-faced Hemsley, 47, a pig farmer’s son from Rutland, started out in the City at 18 as a photocopier assistant in the Lloyd’s insurance market, an area to which he returned as an aggressive deal-doer after reversing Hemsley & Co, the stockbroking firm he started with another broker, Raphael Zorn. Today, he is managing director of the investment banker and broker he then set up, Numis (‘coin’ in Greek), which is an active participant in AIM and other markets, in sectors ranging from property and insurance to engineering and mining. Once asked what he had learnt at Lloyd’s, Hemsley replied ‘not to drink at lunchtime’.

John Dodd
10 Alongside Mark Tyndall, Derek Stuart and Lindsay Whitelaw, John Dodd launched Artemis in 1997 as a ‘dedicated active investment management house’. The company, whose majority shareholder is now ABN Amro, has enjoyed meteoric growth and, at the last count, managed assets of £16.4 billion. Dodd still keeps his hand on the management tiller at the £696 million Artemis UK Smaller Companies fund, which, since it was launched in 1998, has grown 778 per cent. Dodd eschews many of the trappings of the City and even wears a plain black Swatch watch to remind himself of his more humble beginnings.

Simon Rigby
11 Preston native Simon Rigby bosses utility support services star Spice, lauded for its canny use of AIM in raising money and completing astute and ambitious deals, such as the recent takeover of fellow AIM firm Revenue Assurance Services. Founded in 1996, with Rigby leading a management buy-out of Yorkshire Electricity’s maintenance business, Spice has grown from a single £3 million a year contract into a venture worth £290 million. A move to the Main Market is mooted. When not driving Spice ever-forward, Rigby is an enthusiastic ‘chauffeur’ to his teenage chess-playing son.

Andrew Monk
12 Not lacking in self-confidence, Monk has overhauled investment bank and broker Blue Oar (formerly Corporate Synergy) since grabbing the chief executive’s reins earlier this year. Some of the ‘golf club’ brokers have been given the boot and new people and a new culture now rule. Monk, who was previously one of the luminaries at Oriel Securities, claims a large base of hedge fund and fund management acolytes. He has already overseen a 44 per cent surge in underlying first-half pre-tax profits to £2 million.

Philip Secrett
13 Secrett is the international director of capital markets at accountant Grant Thornton, the seventh-largest nominated adviser on AIM and, following its acquisitions of RSM Robson Rhodes, the undisputed lead accountancy practice on the junior market, with 232 clients. Never one to mince his words, Secrett recently declared that the Government’s proposed changes to AIM capital gains tax were ‘not a good step for the market’.

Jamie Matheson
14 With chief executive and ‘father of the firm’ John Hall retiring from the board, the spotlight now falls on Jamie Matheson, executive chairman of Brewin Dolphin, the UK’s largest independent private client investment manager by virtue of some £22 billion of funds under management. Results for the year to September revealed a rise in profits to £41.7 million (£32 million), on total income of £209 million (£174 million). The results were buoyed by a particularly strong showing from Brewin’s well-thought-of investment banking arm. Family man Matheson, a past deacon of the Bonnetmakers and Dyers of Glasgow and a past Precis of the Grand Antiquity Society of Glasgow, lives in Ayrshire.

Anthony Bolton
15 Bolton’s stewardship of the Fidelity Special Situations fund has earned him an almost guru-like status in the City. Indeed, it’s often difficult to know which attribute to applaud: his longevity (he’s been at the helm for 26 years), his money-making, his sense of timing, or his piercing market insights. However, he retires at the end of 2007, having handed over the reins to various young thrusters, including 36-year old Sanjeev Shah. In all, Fidelity holds 150 individual stakes in AIM companies.

Derek Mapp
16 Serial entrepreneur Mapp, who made a turn selling the pub chain Tom Cobleigh and nursery business Leapfrog for princely sums, is a newcomer to our top 50 following an eventful year for two AIM ventures where he wields an influence as chairman – blue-collar recruiter Staffline and in-store music supplier Imagesound. Mapp, a busy entrepreneurial bee, also has directorial involvement at Informa, chairs Sport England and has a number of private family businesses in farming and property development.

Simon Hayes
17 The quietly authoritative Hayes has charted a steady-as-she-goes course this year as head of KBC Peel Hunt, ensuring his firm has been very selective about the number and type of IPOs it undertakes, and indefatigable when raising money for existing clients. KBC is the fourth most active AIM broker and adviser, with 89 and 77 clients respectively.

Philip Richards
18 Philip Richards, who heads aggressive fund management group RAB Capital, was already a figure of power in the City, either as a prop or a threat to entrepreneurs on his radar screen, before his strongly performing RAB Special Situations fund grabbed even wider public notice by becoming briefly the biggest single shareholder in stricken mortgage bank Northern Rock. RAB bought more – nearly six per cent at between 250p and £3 a share – before the shares’ further tumble provoked the quietly spoken evangelical Christian to campaign against selling it off at a fire-sale price.

Peter Hambro and sons
19 In the old days, the name Hambro meant merchant banking. For today’s AIM investors it spells mining. Peter Hambro is executive chairman of Peter Hambro Mining, one of that volatile sector’s more spectacular successes, which is developing prospects and producing gold from deposits in Far Eastern Russia. It has soared from 130p in 2002 to £13, valuing the company at more than £1 billion.

Peter, meanwhile, installed his son Jay in the driving seat of Aricom. Not to be outdone, Jay’s brother Leo attempted to steer Russian Timber, the second-largest timber-harvesting group in Russia, onto AIM until market conditions recently put plans for a £100 million float, handled by Citigroup, on hold.

Stephen Hazell-Smith
20 The ever-genial Hazell-Smith, chairman of Phoenix Venture Capital Trust and former managing director of Close Investment, observes the market from several angles as chairman of market operator PLUS Markets and of Conduit PR. He is engagingly philosophical about the aborted attempt to merge PLUS with Project Turquoise, the planned equities trading platform being designed by seven major investment banks. The banks wanted to use their preferred dealing system, rather than the one PLUS has crafted, and would brook no dissent.

Says Hazell-Smith: ‘It was like diners at a Gordon Ramsay restaurant telling him how to run the kitchen.’

Alex Snow
21 In person, the old Harrovian is prone to the odd bout of self-deprecation, but as boss of Evolution Group he has been single minded and aggressive in executing his firm’s expansion strategy. This year has seen the group raise £231 million for six new ventures and retain its status in the elite AIM broking and adviser club. The addition of Williams de Broë last year has helped boost funds under management to £2.5 billion.

Bob Holt
22 Gruff, grizzled, no-nonsense, determined, ambitious – all adjectives that perfectly describe Bob Holt, the near-legendary Mears man beloved of investors of all hues for his value-creation skills. Now back in the hot seat as both chairman and chief executive of the social housing star, he recently delighted supporters with major contract wins,
having returned Mears to a more selective approach to winning business. His domiciliary care arm isn’t doing too badly either.

Mark Watts
23 Keep-fit enthusiast Mark Watts is managing partner and hedge fund manager at investment house Marwyn. It backs proven management teams in sectors undergoing regulatory or other change, and successes under its belt include Zetar, Inspicio and Silverdell. This year was even busier for Marwyn than 2006 and market followers see gaming sector consolidation vehicle Aldgate Capital (where leisure sector star Nick Harding has recently been installed as CEO) as one from the Marwyn stable to watch in 2008.

Laurie Beevers
24 Beevers enjoyed stints at Natwest, Orme & Eykyn and Charlton Seal, before becoming chief executive of stockbroker WH Ireland – now the fifth most active broker, with a penchant for resources stocks. Beevers is currently in ‘early-stage’ talks with ‘a number’ of potential suitors. Away from work, Beevers chooses to relax to the strummings of Jimi Hendrix and tries to keep up with his four grown-up children, who ‘party like billio’.

Peter Webb
25 One of the City’s more successful fund managers over many years, the ebullient Peter Webb, head of Unicorn Asset Management, is not known for modesty. His self-confidence is buttressed by his growth record when running the £93 million smaller companies backer Eaglet Investment Trust for 14 years. He stood down recently to resist proposals from key shareholders that he felt would lead to the trust’s liquidation, accusing his upstart rivals of seeking ‘back door control’ with plans that are likely to cause ‘an inevitable destruction of shareholder value’.

26 Stephen Bourne: corporate finance partner at AIM’s second leading bean
counter, BDO.

27 Giles Hargreaves: chief executive of Hargreave Hale, his 110-year-old family broking firm. Also runs the three successful Marlborough funds – Special Situations, Microcap and UK Leading Companies.

28 Patrick Reeve: managing director of VCT specialist Close Ventures.

29 Martin Graham: head of AIM at the London Stock Exchange and a man doing his best to get chancellor Darling to reverse the mooted CGT changes.

30 Leesa Peters: flamboyant chief executive of Conduit, one of the fastest-growing PR firms on AIM.

31 Simon Brickles: chief executive of PLUS Markets, which is becoming a serious rival to both AIM and the Official List of the London Stock Exchange.

32 Stefan Allesch-Taylor: the surprisingly tall chief executive of broker Fairfax, which has raised £250 million from eight IPOs
in 2007.

33 Tim Linacre: chief executive of Panmure Gordon, AIM’s second most profuse broker to new issues this year.

34 Chilton Taylor: ‘Mr AIM’ at leading accountant Baker Tilly.

35 Mladen Ninkov: boss of Griffin mining – recently won best-performing share over five years, although a recent profit warning has blotted the copy book.

36 Peter Ashworth: the main player at Charles Stanley’s respected squad of smaller companies analysts – and one of the most popular in the market.

37 David Blackwell: award-winning, bearded and hard-to-hoodwink AIM journalist for
the FT.

38 Emma Kane: influential and wonderfully connected boss of top-ten public relations outfit Redleaf.

39 Andy Brough: head of the pan-European small- and mid-cap team at blue-chip investor Schroders.

40 Wol Kolade: managing partner of serial institutional investor ISIS and chairman of
the British Venture Capital Association.

41 Daniel Nickols: top-performing Old Mutual fund manager and, unfortunately for him, also a Derby County supporter.

42 Peter Whitbread: second highest paid entrepreneur on AIM – and he’s earned his keep as chief executive of £900 million Lamprell.

43 Clive Garston: corporate finance veteran at solicitor Halliwells.

44 Geoff Foster: when not supporting Arsenal, he’s the Daily Mail’s ever-alert market reporter.

45 Katie Potts: founder and manager of Herald Investment Trust, which sports 246 individual small-cap holdings and has outperformed many this year.

46 David Jackson: lively entrepreneur who’s turned around engineering services group Redhall.

47 John West: the new, youthful and thoroughly professional CEO of Tavistock Communications.

48 Bob Morton: serial entrepreneur who may have sold Systems Union and MacLellan, but who continues to drive Tenon and Harrier forward.

49 Howard and Graham Shore: the dynamic duo behind investment bank Shore Capital.

50 Martin Thomas & Paul Tetlow: small-cap focused partners at lawyer Hunton
& Williams.