45 Rod Eddington

Sir Roderick Ian Eddington, Infrastructure Australia chair, Victorian Major Events tsar, JP Morgan chairman and News Corporation director, sits very high in Melbourne's "tower of power" at 101 Collins Street.

His ideas, like the massive $5 billion Regional Rail Link (hatched in a role under the previous Labor government but only now coming to fruition) are, quite literally, changing the face of the southern metropolis.

"Hot Rod's" trademark moustache may be gone but his influence is real. Everyone takes his calls and everyone bows down to his gravitas. Almost no-one in Australia, except perhaps the ubiquitous David Gonski, come close to his symbiotic spider's web.

Some observers are less than charitable about his overall record, arguing that something -- perhaps his international aura -- has meant multi-billion dollar mistakes on the Allco and Rio Tinto boards have been overlooked.

Still, it'd be a brave political or business leader who didn't play nice with the Rhodes Scholar-turned British Airways chief, who was knighted for saving the airline -- and Britain's pride -- after 9/11 (he admits the title "helps him get tables in restaurants").

*For more on Rod Eddington see the original profile.