Ranking (noun): 1. An act or instance of indicating relative standing. 2. A number of persons forming a separate class in a social hierarchy or in any graded body. 3. high position or station in the social or some similar scale.

EACH year that we put together the Lloyd's List Top 100 most influential people in shipping ranking, it becomes ever more clear what a difficult task it is.

There is not one metric that can cover businesses as dispersed as shipowning and operating, financing, insurance, legal, technology, regulations and registries.

We do use metrics where available, and you can see these in our Top 10 shipmanagers list, Top 10 flag states and Top 10 classification societies. Here we can at least grade groups by fleet size according to Lloyd's List Intelligence information, company sources and other data.   

Our main list is based largely on analysing industry events and business decisions of the past 12 months. This inevitably comes with context, which we consider too.

The ranking is borne out of a collective editorial discussion within the Lloyd’s List newsroom. We do get industry input, with subscribers making suggestions to the editorial team, and our editorial board will also make suggestions.

It is our intention to produce a useful snapshot of the forces at play within our industry and some forward-looking nods to the trends into which each profile delves.

As a rule of thumb, the individuals on our list should have influence at company level, so senior executive or owner; they should exercise influence nationally or regionally, through business links or ties to an association; and, crucially, they should be influential internationally too.  

The people running the world’s largest fleets will no doubt always find a place on our list; so too will those with their hands on the purse strings — and you can see more of these often 'behind the scenes' power-brokers in this year's ranking than ever before.

The reaction to our Top 100 can be mixed. Some people do not want to take part in a public ranking system, valuing their privacy or the ability to operate unnoticed. While we understand that position, we believe it is our job to reflect who is truly making the decisions, and who is acting as a public face but with no real power.

As always, we are looking for new personalities and new voices heralding change within the industry, and this is reflected in our Top 10 technology leaders and Top 10 in marine insurance lists, which have seen a lot of movement this year.

As the maritime industry becomes more connected through the use of blockchain, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things, we would expect to see these lists evolve even more.  

We hope you find the Lloyd’s List Top 100 a compelling annual examination of our industry and the personalities that drive it forward.