In the prestigious setting of the Rockhal, on the evening of Tuesday 13 December, . The event precedes the publication of the January 2023 edition of Paperjam magazine, which will devote a large part of its pages to the presentation of this inevitably scrutinised ranking. The first edition of the Top 100 took place in 2006, and now occurs every two years.
The genesis of a flagship ranking
It was on 17 November 2006, with the publication of its December edition, that Paperjam gave birth to the ranking of the 100 most influential decision-makers in Luxembourg, conceived at the time in collaboration with the consultant Carlo Schneider and (since then) established by an independent jury of the editorial staff. It was composed of honorary minister of state Jacques Santer, Guy De Muyser, Mario Hirsch and . The jury’s initial choice was Roland Junck, who had been appointed CEO of Arcelor a few months earlier. But a few hours before the end of the competition, a press release from the steel group announced that Mr Junck had been replaced by Lakshmi Mittal himself, due to a takeover bid. The final rankings were in turmoil!
“While one page is turned for one of the country’s leading companies, another is crowned the winner: , CEO of SES,” recalls Mike Koedinger, founder and CEO of Maison Moderne, which publishes Paperjam.
The ranking, which was established according to a meticulously applied procedure, was taken seriously from the outset and recognised as the work of a jury independent of the editorial staff. “Since 2006, Luxembourg has grown from 470,000 residents to almost 650,000, Maison Moderne has grown from 24 to 140 employees, and Paperjam’s readers have grown ,” says Koedinger.
The Top 100 says a lot about the evolution of Luxembourg
In 16 years, a lot has changed at the level of the parent company of this editorial and event-based approach, but also on a national scale. The Top 100 is a great witness to these transformations.
“When you reread the rankings of the first nine editions, you realise that it is both an interesting reflection of the country’s economic development and its societal development,” says Koedinger. “This event allows us to take an analytical look at Luxembourg.”
This event allows us to take an analytical look at Luxembourg.
After in 2008, the first non-Luxembourger came to the top in 2010, with Ernst Wilhem Contzen, boss of Deutsche Bank and president of the ABBL. In 2016, took first place as the first entrepreneur with an immigrant background, also underlining the importance of the real estate and construction sector in the grand duchy.
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In 2020, became the first woman to win the top spot. “In the meantime, we have seen the arrival--and departure--of Chinese bank managers in the Top 10. Luxembourg is evolving, and the Paperjam Top 100 is a reflection of this evolution,” underlines the director of Maison Moderne.
The evening of the year
Since 2006, the Paperjam Top 100 has been the special issue of the magazine that closes the year and opens the next. But it is also an event for Maison Moderne, which puts all its know-how and energy into organising the Top 100 evening: “This is the company’s flagship event, which is only organised every two years, and brings together a thousand economic and political decision-makers for an exceptional evening,” says Koedinger.
This Tuesday, the Maison Moderne teams will see months of work come to fruition. “The organisation of such an event illustrates the synergy of the company’s different skills: the Business Guide’s data, the editorial team’s knowledge of the economic players, the Business Club’s know-how in event production, and the Brand Studio’s communication and marketing. It has become an unmissable event.”
In 2006, for its first edition, a simple dinner after the publication of the magazine marked the occasion, in the presence of the Top 10. Two years later, the setting changed. The Top 100 moved to Luxexpo. The awards ceremony, which crowned , was followed by a concert given by The Communicators, a temporary group created for the occasion and composed of economic decision-makers: (vocals, guitar), (vocals), Raoul Thill (drums), (synthesiser), Änder Hirtt (vocals), Gabriel Mambu (bass) and (bass). An unforgettable memory.
The Rockhal in , the Cercle Municipal in , the EECL in , the Grand Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg in and the Rockhal again in all took it in turns to host the event, which grew in strength, collected memories and honoured those who shape the Luxembourg economy. Then came , a victim, like the entire events sector, of the covid-19 health crisis. Resilient, the Maison Moderne teams managed to put together with the Top 10 gathered at PwC Luxembourg during a streamed ceremony.
Back in the great hall of the Rockhal this Tuesday, 13 December, the Paperjam Top 100, in its ninth edition, will find a sounding board worthy of its prestige, as well as the attention it receives from Luxembourg’s economic decision-makers. It’s an unmissable event.
This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.