Edwin Truman

One of the long-time fixtures at those all-important G-group meetings - the G7, G10 and the newer G20 - will be missing this year.

Edwin "Ted" Truman - no relation to Harry S Truman, America's 33rd president - retired for a second time in January. Journalists have known him as one of Washington's most self-effacing officials, first as the longest-serving director of international finance for the Federal Reserve and then during a two-year stint as assistant secretary of the US Treasury for international affairs.

Truman has either participated in or witnessed every major event in international finance since the 1970s. He recently took a research post at Washington's influential Institute for International Economics, where he can afford to be more candid about his trademark views.

Truman is smart, hard-working and contentious to the point of being dismissive, and his intellectual firepower could cut an intimidating swathe emanating from the Fed's headquarters in Foggy Bottom.