Winner: Alex Horne, Wembley Stadium

Most top-level FDs live their lives in the public eye, but are afforded some measure of protection from the slavering hordes by the buffer of the chief executive.

In Alex Horne's case, his appointment as the Football Association's finance boss was seen as a bold stroke in 2004, but assuming control of the construction 'car crash' that was Wembley Stadium would make him accountable on a level rarely experienced by most finance professionals.

By taking on the challenge of transforming Wembley from an unfinished husk of 250,000 tonnes of concrete and steel, containing 1,720km of power and lighting cables, into the finished product, he exposed himself to the most intense scrutiny from media, fans and a government desperate to avoid another white elephant after the Millennium Dome debacle.

Looking at Horne's CV, his experience amply qualified him for the Wembley Stadium resurrection. After training at Coopers and Lybrand as a chartered accountant, he moved into the business recovery sector. He spent two years living in Bangkok working on financial restructuring assignments and then returned to London.

He joined a business regeneration practice working on a number of business improvement and corporate turnaround projects before an FA role came up for grabs. Horne joined the FA in July 2003 and in less than three years was promoted to the FD's position.

As FD and company secretary of the Football Association, Horne took charge of how the world's most popular game was run financially in one of the world's most fanatical footballing countries.

He added the challenge of Wembley Stadium to his list of responsibilities after a matter of months and, on his appointment as managing director late in 2006, Horne was thrown in at the deep end.

Horne first had to help hammer out a solution with Multiplex, the Australian builder dragging its heels on getting Wembley in a position to allow fans through the turnstiles.

Multiplex was meant to have the stadium completed in time for the 2006 FA Cup final, and when the deadline was missed, Wembley National Stadium Ltd promptly claimed liquidated damages and held back £38m of the cash owed to Multiplex. The builder, however, wanted this money and an additional £70m to complete the project. Multiplex then presented a claim of £350m against WNSL.

After Horne went into crunch talks with Multiplex, the deadlock was broken and a deal was sealed with the FA agreeing to give Multiplex an extra 130 days to finish the project.

The stadium met the new deadline as promised, sparking a turnaround that was nothing short of spectacular.

The only negative publicity the stadium has received is down to the 'prawn sandwich brigade' staying in the corporate lounges for too long at half time during England matches.

Still, the old adage 'if you build it, they will come' is an idealistic view to take when it comes to national stadia hosting money-spinning events.

Wembley still has to fight off competition from the Millennium Stadium and Twickenham for events and with Horne at the helm, Wembley has hosted the Concert for Diana and pulled off a real coup in staging the first regular season NFL match ever to be played outside North America between the Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants. Wembley is now on the shortlist to stage the Champions League Final in 2010 or 2011, which represents a remarkable contrast from the situation this time last year.

Horne told Accountancy Age earlier this year that he was keen to stay on as MD of the flourishing stadium. 'It's a fantastic job. If the opportunity arose for me to stay on and take the job permanently, I'd be very interested.'