MAARTEN van den Bergh is the most powerful figure in British business, according to the substantial and independent Power 100 research undertaken by The Times into who is who, and who knows whom, in the top echelons of business.

However, although van den Bergh is chairman of Lloyds TSB, and a non-executive director of BT, British Airways and Shell, few people this side of the Channel would even hazard a guess at his identity. Beyond those whose interests lie in City and commercial circles, only a small number would be able to place him. A vanishingly small number of people could put a face to the name.

The relative anonymity of Maarten van den Bergh may raise questions about the methodology used to create the list. But unlike many such registers of the great and the good, it leans for its results not on the subjective opinions of a panel of judges or some sort of self- defining electorate. The market is the arbiter of who is in The Times Power 100.

It is the market, ultimately, that decides who is fit to run our largest companies and the market that decides whether they are qualified to be a chairman, a chief executive or a part-time non-executive director. It is also the market that decides how much those companies are worth. And it is a scoring system carefully aligned to these criteria that whittles the 2,722 directors of larger quoted companies down to the Power 100.

Maarten van den Bergh is a good winner, and a deserving one. He comes out as top dog because he has more directorships of larger companies than any of his peers. In it instructive to note, however, that van den Bergh also comes out top if employee numbers, rather than market capitalisation, is used as the calculation cornerstone.

This friendly, unassuming but determined, capable and dedicated Dutchman has control over more capital value than any other director of a London-listed company. He also leads, or helps to lead, the largest workforce.

So what makes van den Bergh so special? What qualities do any of this year’s Power 100 have that set them apart from lesser corporate mortals? Some observers will assume that the movers and shakers owe their good fortune to the smooth workings of the old boy network. The Power 100 research certainly indicates that an embracing and dynamic network of relationships binds together the senior directors of British quoted companies. If you listen carefully, you may be able to hear the sound of backs being scratched. Wisps of cigar smoke may be seen wafting from oak-panelled rooms. But you must be determinedly cynical, and perhaps blinkered, if you assume that all the people who create, exchange and use the world’s wealth are co- signatories to an immoral, or even evil, capitalist conspiracy.

Yes, of course, these giants of business make sure that they know plenty of people, but they also make sure that they know plenty of things, too.

One of the enduring testimonies to emerge from three years of Power 100 surveys is that successful business people are very often loyal. As you read the biographies of the Power 100 constituents, you will notice time and again that the men and women who succeed dedicate the majority of their careers to a single company or institution.

Van den Bergh is a case in point. He was 32 years with Shell before spreading his wings. Sir Tom McKillop, last year’s winner and in second place this year, has dedicated the greater part of his working life to AstraZeneca — and its forerunner companies Zeneca and ICI. Ditto, John Buchanan, ranked third. Like McKillop, Buchanan is in the Power 100 top ten for the third successive year. He spent most of his best years with BP before giving Vodafone, AstraZeneca, BHP Billiton and Smith & Nephew the benefit of his experience.

Lord Sharman was a KPMG accountant man and boy before rising to sit on the boards of six leading British companies active in fields as diverse as advertising, insurance, gas, security guarding and brewing. Rob Margetts, the former ICI employee of 31 years’ standing, is now chairman of two FTSE 100 companies and a non- executive director of a third.

Everywhere you look in the Power 100, you see canny business people who have helped to create significant and sustained wealth in an organisation. It is these people who, when they reach their late forties and fifties, are identified by others as being best qualified to help them to guide other businesses to sustainable success.

Yes, it is important to know people. However, it is more important to be an experienced manager and engineer or scientist, accountant, banker, civil servant or marketeer. And which are the companies that feature again and again as the breeders of our finest managers? It is the BPs, GSKs, HSBCs and Unilevers of this world. It is the likes of Shell, Barclays, Tesco, British Gas, Vodafone and Rio Tinto that breed wealth-creating and job-creating talent. It is these companies that also recycle and share that talent.

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