Two former KPMG chairmen have been identified among the top 100 most influential people in the City.

Liberal Democrat peer Lord Sharman is named the 32nd most powerful person, while Sir Mike Rake, who was chairman of KPMG International until last year when he joined BT to head the board, got the number 34 slot.

Lord Sharman was KPMG chairman from 1997 to 1999 and was responsible for making the firm the first to make its annual report public. He is currently chairman of Aviva, the insurance group, and Aegis, the media services company.

Sir Mike headed KPMG through the infamous US tax shelter debacle which threatened to seriously damage the firm. The firm emerged with its reputation intact and Sir Mike last year won the Accountancy Age Outstanding Industry Achievement award.

Lord Burns, former Treasury civil servant and current chairman of Marks & Spencer was named as the 39 most influential person on the Power 100List published in The Times today. However, he is not as highly placed as Nicholas Macpherson, permanent secretary to the Treasury and chancellor Alistair Darling’s key civil servant, who is ranked at number 36.

The list is compiled with the help of data from Hemscott, the financial information company.