Information Commissioner is lead data player

Will Thomas succeed in his crusade? Charles Ping, client services director at Ai Data Intelligence, believes Thomas will get the powers and the budget needed to prosecute breaches of the law by commercial and public sector organisations alike. "Without doubt, 'datagate' has added gravitas to the role of the commissioner," Ping says.

2. EDWINA DUNN, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, AND CLIVE HUMBY, CHAIRMAN, DUNNHUMBY

The powerhouse partnership behind Dunnhumby was as active as ever in the past 12 months, with Dunn taking the commercial lead and Humby driving the development of services. Dunn has continued to spread the company's wings to the US, where it works with grocery chain Kroger and its FMCG suppliers, as well as 16 other countries. According to its latest declared results, turnover increased by 53 per cent from £40.5m in 2005 to £61.3m in 2006. Pre-tax profits rose by 55 per cent to £13.1m in the same period.

Data analytics has been Dunnhumby's bedrock - but now market research is in its sights. Last year it launched a consumer panel of 60,000 Tesco Clubcard customers, from which it will marry attitudinal with behavioural data from 13 million Clubcard members.

3. MATT DENMAN, HEAD OF PROCUREMENT, CAPITAL ONE

For the vast amounts of data they consume, the large financial services companies and their data buyers are major power brokers in data land. Capital One remains one of the biggest users of direct mail and data in the UK. Not long ago, Denman was prospect manager in charge of the bank's acquisition campaigns. Since then he has been making steady progress up the corporate ladder to head overall procurement. Data still falls within his remit.

4. MARK ROY, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, THE READ GROUP

The irrepressible Roy has become an eloquent voice in the debate on DM's environmental impact. And though cynics may carp that his arguments are often linked to the use of suppression files, it is hard not to admire Roy's chutzpah. Initiatives such as REaD Group's advisory role to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Junk Mail may be self-serving, but such moves benefit the wider industry, too. There were challenges, not least to one of REaD Group's flagship products, the Bereavement Register, by the Stop Dead Consortium lobby, which wants to make death registration data free for suppression purposes. Last year Roy helped to set up the Suppression Providers Alliance to raise standards in the sector, and REaD Group says its profits have risen by 70 per cent on the previous year.

5. DUNCAN PAINTER, MANAGING DIRECTOR, EXPERIAN INTEGRATED MARKETING

After a short spell in a global development role, Painter returned to the top table late in 2007 to lead Experian Integrated Marketing (EIM), the product of a merger between Experian Marketing Services and ClarityBlue. Painter's return was to fill the gap left by the departure of former management consultant Martin Webley after a short stint as MD. Earlier in 2007, Painter had been closely involved in the $240m acquisition of Hitwise, the internet measurement company. His appetite for new-business development remains undiminished, and he recently led the winning pitch for a five-year contract with Homeserve, the home emergency service provider. Other new clients last year include LV= and a large games console company, thought to be Nintendo. Now that the merger has bedded down - some 100 jobs were lost - Painter must be looking forward to leading EIM's product manufacturing group and yet more client wins.

6. DAVE ALLEN, EUROPEAN CHIEF EXECUTIVE AND NICK MARTIN, UK INFORMATION PRODUCTS COUNTRY LEADER, ACXIOM

Acxiom's UK bosses could be forgiven for being distracted by the issues facing their US parent, which include a private equity deal that collapsed, a change in leadership and turbulence from the credit crunch. Such challenges are testing the resolve of European database services boss Allen and new recruit Martin, the former Mardev managing director hired in November. The latter joined at a crucial time, for as volumes of direct mail decrease, the focus for investment is now on digital. Observers say Acxiom's email/SMS business is a success story, with high double-digit percentage growth in the past year.

7. JOHN DOBSON, MANAGING DIRECTOR, EURODIRECT

Despite being rich enough to concentrate on his golf and his sun tan, Dobson is still in the thick of the consumer data action in Leeds. He and Skipton chief executive Mike Green negotiated the purchase of Broadsystem from News International last year, while EuroDirect grew its profits by 10 per cent. A major win was Npower, to host its database and manage its prospect pool.

Dobson jokingly says the highlight of last year was hearing negative stories about his rivals, but this sense of mischief belies a generosity of spirit that has seen him mentor many well-known names in data. The 61-year-old may have taken on the mantle of DM's grand old man, but those who write him off as a figurehead could not be more wrong. "He's still as able as ever and has the same appetite," says one who knows him well. His latest project is lifestyle data collection, believing there is room for a fourth player. "We've dipped our toes into the survey market and found it very warm," is all Dobson will say. A mass-market rollout is planned for the autumn.

8. LIONEL THAIN, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, IPT

After a couple of years of relentless growth, e-data pioneer Thain and IPT had a disappointing 2007 as the company made a loss of £1m on revenues of £24.1m. The company explained the lack of profits on "technology problems" in its UK operations and "stiff competition" from other providers. Thain says a recovery is underway and that IPT's French acquisitions had performed well. He acknowledged that the company had received another takeover approach, which the IPT board is considering. Observers believe Thain should cash in sooner rather than later, ahead of legislation that may limit email broadcasting.

9. JEREMY WHITAKER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, DLG

It's been another tumultuous year for Whitaker, one of the most ambitious players in direct marketing. He is never happier than when he is wheeling and dealing, and a highlight was a refinancing deal last October that valued DLG at £72.5m - quite a hike from the £25m price tag at the first MBO 18 months previously - and gave management a controlling stake. It involved a secondary buyout from private equity firm Promethean Investments, supported by new partner Kaupthing Capital Partners. With Kaupthing's help, Whitaker is building a war chest to make further acquisitions, especially in the digital and mobile spaces as the market for cold postal data slows. Observers were intrigued at the appointment of Friends Reunited chief executive as DLG non-executive chairman in February, and await the fruits of his influence on Whitaker and the firm.

10. IAIN LOVETT, EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, BLUE SHEEP

B2B data is becoming a more lucrative arena - witness the arrival of data firm infoUSA on these shores - and as one of the stalwarts, Blue Sheep is well placed to take advantage. The firm was founded in 1987 and its longevity is a testament to co-founder Iain Lovett, who is now sole owner. As the company bids to boost the value of its analytical service, hiving off sales of its UK Business Universe into B2B Data Direct last month was a smart move.

Lovett may be less hands-on at Blue Sheep now, but his industry stature continues to grow. An eloquent voice in the opt-in and environmental debates in the past year, Lovett is determined the industry should not duck from its responsibilities.

As a board member of the DMA, chairman of the IDM Data Council and member of the DMA Data Council, Lovett's gravitas is increasing.

11. CAROLINE WORBOYS, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, BROADSYSTEM

Worboys is a textbook example of how to lead your company's acquisition to the mutual benefit of all concerned. When Broadsystem was sold by News International to Skipton Information Group (SIG) last year, Worboys led the negotiations, bagged a seat on the SIG board and retained News International as a client. Meanwhile, Broadsystem says its billings increased by 10 per cent last year, and in January it unveiled an upgraded interactive call centre in Bristol.

No one doubts Worboys will hold her own among SIG's other data-led companies, such as EuroDirect and Callcredit. Broadsystem brings fresh data collection abilities to SIG in return for use of the group's proprietary data sets. Despite such intense corporate activity, Worboys is a familiar figure on event platforms and a member of various industry-related councils.

12. JON CANO-LOPEZ, MANAGING DIRECTOR, AI DATA INTELLIGENCE

Although Ai is controlled by CEO John Regan and COO Jason Batten, the company's front man is Cano-Lopez, the former Acxiom data services group leader hired last April to take Ai beyond data bureau services. His focus has been the integration of credit behaviour with marketing data, doubling staff numbers to 32 and building what the company claims is the largest prospect pool in the country. Observers say the ambition is for Ai to fill the niche left by ClarityBlue, that of an independent broker of large volumes of data. Modest and well liked, Cano-Lopez is capable of surprises, not least the fact that he has personalised number plates.

13. GARY BROWN, PRODUCT AND MARKETING DIRECTOR, THOMSON LOCAL

The second of our B2B players in the data league, Brown is in charge of a two-million-record data set that forms the bedrock of many a B2B data file. Last year he relaunched the Business Strata website, set up to cater for direct marketers, and pushed demand for opt-in email data - Thomson has more than half a million such addresses. Growth also came from licensing the Thomson database to new customers, such as satellite navigation and directory enquiries services, using Thomson Local data for their own products. New products will launch later this year.

14. TONY LAMB, DATA DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR, ROYAL MAIL

Lamb is the data world's comeback kid after surfacing from the ashes of Wegener DM. Pressure on Royal Mail to milk its assets and exploit the salience of its brand has inevitably focused attention on the company's data resources. But Lamb's remit is to launch a full-service function that embraces acquisition and analytics. Already Royal Mail has created what it calls the Supplier Framework Panel, a roster of data service providers to provide the data crunching. Lamb, alongside head of data services Jonathan Eddy, has begun hiring in earnest. Eight new recruits have joined, including Christa Seeberger, a former EDF Energy product manager, as project manager. Lamb chairs the DMA's Data Council; his remit last year included contributing to the debates on data security and the environment.

15. JULIE SCREECH, HEAD OF DATA STRATEGY, PROXIMITY LONDON

Screech is the only agency data expert in this year's Power 100, for her role as head of the largest agency data team in London. In the past 12 months she has helped Proximity win lead data agency status on P&G's Fresh Living CRM programme, and a data planning and analysis brief with Royal Mail. Screech has been creating campaign planning and targeting tools, as well as integrating the use of data within Proximity's innovation laboratory, The Dreamery. Screech was a judge at last year's Connect Awards.