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John Whittaker isn’t a household name but his property, including the Trafford Centre and Liverpool John Lennon Airport, puts him at the top of our 50 Most Influential Northerners. Kevin Gopal asks what influence means and what it says about life in the region

A property developer who few have heard of? How come John Whittaker tops our first 50 Most Influential Northerners?

Whittaker is the founder of Peel Group and its dominant shareholder. Publicity shy he may be, but if you’re one of the millions of northerners with horizons broadened by the low-cost flight revolution of the last 10 years, then he’s had an impact on your life. Peel owns Liverpool John Lennon Airport, the north’s budget flight hub.

And if you’ve ever sat in a queue backed up to the motorway to buy your Christmas presents at the Trafford Centre, that’s Peel again. Love the grandiose retail centre or loathe it, Whittaker, who once reportedly considered becoming a priest, fought a long, determined battle to win planning permission for his cathedral of shopping. Property developers are given to hype – and when they say they create jobs they actually create the buildings for others to create them in – but his claim that the company could invest £50 billion in the Manchester Ship Canal corridor (Peel owns that, by the way) over the next 30 years means Whittaker, aged 68, will be a fixture in our future lists until he retires.

Setting out to identify the individuals who have the greatest bearing on life in the North West, Yorkshire and Humber and the North East, we chose to look for influence. It’s a broad term, covering economic clout, political power, cultural impact and more. It could mean the people who get talked about around the water cooler – Rio Ferdinand (number 24 in our list) or Peter Kay (27) – but it could also mean the person who made the water cooler.

To begin with, our researchers looked to sectors such as investors, politicians, sportspeople, public sector figures and academia and drew up a longlist of names we felt merited inclusion in the 50 Most Influential Northerners.

They didn’t have to be northerners by birth but they did need a base in the north. George Osborne’s Tatton constituency ruled him in; Scouser Sir Terry Leahy was ruled out because Tesco is headquartered in the south.

Then we asked our judges – shrewd observers of life in the north – to vote on their top 50, and to make the case for anyone obviously missing. Votes were combined to produce the rankings overleaf.

The result, perhaps inevitably, is that money holds sway over personality – and that usually means white men in suits. As with Whittaker, few may have heard of Peter Stephenson (19) but the Able UK boss’s plans for a marine energy park on the Humber, if they come off, promise not only £400 million of much needed investment in the area but also a kickstart for the offshore wind industry – one that’s critical if climate change is to be fought.

That’s not to say strands of influence can be separated out so easily. Ken McMeikan (4), also little known, leads Greggs, one of the north’s most successful businesses. But the chief executive of the bakery shops is here as much for his influence on our lunchtime eating habits as on our economy. Businessmen turned philanthropists such as Martin Ainscough (22) also blur the boundaries.

Comparing their influence with that of someone like Jessica Ennis (25) may seem impossible but it’s part of the fun. Few jobs depend on the Sheffield-based world heptathlon champion but who would deny the inspiring, unifying influence of sport – especially if she persuades a younger generation to put down their Xboxes and take to the playing fields? Carol Ann Duffy (9) shows that poets are, as Shelley said, “the unacknowledged legislators of the world” but how does she poll against a more prosaic legislator such as Lib Dem minister, Hazel Grove MP and spending cuts champion Andrew Stunell (47)?

So we’re comparing apples with oranges. We’re also missing other parts of the orchard. There are no policemen here, for instance – notably no counter-terrorism chiefs – and no trade unionists. In its traditional heartlands, Labour’s only inclusion is its leader Ed Miliband (46), MP for Doncaster North.

More worryingly, there are only eight women in the 50 Most Influential Northerners and five non-white faces. Are we perpetuating the diversity problem by not looking hard enough – or telling it like it unfortunately is? And what about the mavericks and community champions – those influential figures working below the media plumbline who are far more significant in their neighbourhoods than any chief executive?

We think our 50 Most Influential Northerners has revealed much about the people who affect our lives but it’s thrown up as many questions as answers. We hope they’re worth debating – and that you’ll let us know who you think we’ve missed out. Contact us via the details below and we will publish your nominations.

Have your say

Let us know what you think about the 50 Most Influential Northerners and who we might have missed out by emailing us here or, for publication, here. Or you can leave comments at the end of this article

Judging panel

Mohammed Ali OBE is the founder and chief executive of QED-UK, a high profile minority ethnic community economic development agency set up in Bradford in 1990. He is a member of the Department for Work and Pension’s ethnic minority employment advisory group and many other boards and was a finalist in the personality of the year, lifetime achievement and principal of the year categories of the UK Charity Awards.

Broadcaster Allan Beswick presents the Beswick at Breakfast show on BBC Radio Manchester as well as other radio and TV programmes. Before he moved into radio he held a variety of jobs including apprentice electrician, soldier, psychiatric nurse, bus driver, driving instructor and Citizens Advice Bureau manager. He is a board member of the Big Life group, which publishes The Big Issue in the North.

Fay Selvan is chief executive of the Big Life group, which publishes The Big Issue in the North. She founded Diverse Resources in Manchester in 1991 as a healthcare provider, merging it with The Big Issue in the North in 2002 to create the Big Life group of social businesses and charities. Chairs Trafford Healthcare Trust.

Michael Taylor is the editor of North West Business Insider and editorial director of Insider Media, the Manchester-based publishing and events company. The magazine is the holder of six regional and national awards, while Taylor holds two for his journalism. He also hosts business awards and dinners and is a frequent commentator on business issues on radio and television.

Illustration: Laura Turner. Research: William Hall. Profiles: William Hall, Jamie Kenny, Richard Smirke