The only person, other than European Central Bank president Mario Draghi, to top the Financial News list of the most influential people in Europe’s capital markets more than once is Goldman Sachs’s Michael Sherwood, who achieved the feat in 2005 and 2006.

Sherwood joined the US bank as a credit analyst after leaving Manchester University in 1986. A protégé of Lloyd Blankfein, he rose rapidly through the ranks thanks to his astute decision-making, tactical nous and appetite for hard work. Along the way, he developed a Rolodex of contacts that included former Russian president Boris Yeltsin, with whom Sherwood worked directly during the Russian crisis while head of fixed income.