Guy Hands is perhaps the closest private equity gets to a household name. Having bought iconic music group EMI in 2007 - just before the financial crisis went into full swing - he has struggled to make the deal work in the face of difficult circumstances. He is a long-term member of the FN100, a must-read list of the people who are making the biggest difference in the wholesale financial markets, but will he make this year's ranking, published next week?

An outspoken member of the private equity set, Hands and his firm Terra Firma are seldom far from headlines. He has a propensity for buying household names - he is the biggest operator of cinemas in Europe after buying Odeon and UCI and he also once made the UK's largest pub acquisition, buying pub chain Inntrepreneur in 1997.