8. Mike Whitby, Birmingham City Council

Leader of the city council since June 2004, Mike Whitby is unusual among Birmingham's recent civic heads in having taken the top job after only seven years' experience as a local authority member.

He was elected to represent Harborne ward in May 1997, and succeeded David Roy to become leader of the council Conservative group six years later.

His arrival on the scene in Harborne, where he was tipped for great things from day one, privately annoyed some Tories and he had to survive an attempt at questioning the validity of his selection.

When he became group leader he swiftly brought a new professionalism to the then opposition party by forming a shadow cabinet for the first time and describing himself as shadow leader of the council. He showed his political nous by agreeing a deal to keep Labour in power, in exchange for allowing the Conservatives to take all of the council's scrutiny committee chairmanships. That gave Whitby a year to engineer embarrassing scrutiny exposes of the Labour administration's apparent failures.

There were complaints of egotistical behaviour, but Whitby had the last laugh on Labour by forming a coalition with the Liberal Democrats in 2004 to run the council. With a reputation for being on the centre-left of the Conservative Party, he was in a perfect position to bargain behind the scenes with his prospective Lib-Dem partners.

Whitby's leadership of the coalition, or progressive partnership as he insisted on calling it, which apart from a few gaffes has been plain sailing, surprised many critics and political observers who gave the venture little hope of long-term survival. There have been few signs, at least in public, of tensions between the two coalition partners. He was instrumental in forging new links between Birmingham and the emerging economies of China and India. He played a hands-on role in persuading the Nanjing Automotive Corporation to buy MG Rover and re-start production at Longbridge.

He has championed the expansion of Birmingham International Airport,the redevelopment of New Street Station and opened a Birmingham office in London. As council leader, he oversaw dramatic improvements in Birmingham's failing social services and housing department. On the minus side, his handling of the failed underground railway project, the split-site library and the casino was not regarded as Coun Whitby's finest hour.

He was credited as being a motivating force behind the £550 million New Street Gateway project, which was put into action earlier this year when the Government pledged a significant funding pot.
A wealthy man in his own right, Coun Whitby is the owner and managing director of Skeldings, a Black Country engineering firm.