Who is setting the standard in the world of business finance? No one knows better than Business Finance.

The magazine has released its annual list of finance’s most influential people, and the 2007 edition is full of the usual suspects — U.S. Comptroller David Walker, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox, PCAOB Chairman Mark Olson, FASB Chairman Robert Herz and AICPA President Barry Melancon among them. But there are some surprises as well, including:

• University of Iowa professor Erik Lie, whose research has sparked the recent focus on the practice of backdating;
• journalists Floyd Norris and Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times, whose reporting has exposed an array of lapses in executive judgment; and
• U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts), who assumes leadership of the House Committee on Financial Services following the retirement of Rep. Michael Oxley (R-Ohio), of Sarbanes-Oxley fame.

Find out who else made the list here, then tell us who makes your list of finance’s most influential people.