IT has been a year since we last looked at how British business people have fared in America and, in general, it has been a good one.

Britain’s record of exporting businesses to America is mixed, but its executives seem to travel well. British-born managers are running businesses as diverse as the Grand Ole Opry country-and-western music empire to the country’s largest insurer.

The poll, which ranks people not only on the size of their business but also on their influence, shows the diversity of British talent.

Some like to play to their roots. Welshman Sir Howard Stringer has a miner’s lamp and a model of Cardiff Arms Park in his office. Then there are those executives whose personalities have erased nationality. Anna Wintour, Vogue’s editor-in-chief, may still have the accent but “she’s not British, she’s from the nation of Vogue”, said one New York media executive.

Martin Sullivan, boss of the American insurance giant AIG, is our winner for the second year running. He said globalisation was making nationality less of an issue for executives. “Other than the fact that these are two countries divided by a common language, there is little difference in doing business on either side of the Atlantic, particularly for a global organisation such as AIG,” said Sullivan.

But there’s no escaping your roots. AIG became Manchester United’s shirt sponsor this year. “It has confused some of my American colleagues because I have been educating them for the past 10 years on the virtues of Tottenham Hotspur,” said Sullivan.

1 MARTIN SULLIVAN, 52, chief executive of American International Group

The giant insurer is one of the largest publicly traded companies in America — it is certainly the largest to be run by someone from London’s East End.

Martin Sullivan took over in 2005 after the ousting of his mentor and AIG’s founder, Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, during a huge accounting scandal. The controversy wiped $45 billion off AIG’s value and some wondered if Sullivan, too, would be dragged down.

But he has done an excellent job of steadying the ship, working with regulators and shareholders to regain their confidence while coping with a $1.15 billion regulatory fine and America’s worst hurricane season. The group has now bounced back and is valued at $173 billion.

Born in east London and raised in Dagenham, Essex, Sullivan started as a trainee with AIG in 1971 and worked his way to the top. He was elevated to his current position in March 2005.

In April AIG signed a four-year, £56.5m deal to sponsor Manchester United’s shirts. Sullivan, an avid Tottenham Hotspur fan, will learn to love United, the company said.

2 MICHAEL MORITZ, 52, partner in Sequoia Capital