Former Westpac executive Rob Whitfield has risen to become Australia’s most powerful director based on the market cap of the companies whose boards he sits on, marking a new breed of directors as Lindsay Maxsted, David Gonski, David Murray and Gordon Cairns exit top roles.

Analysis prepared for The Australian Financial Review by the data company OpenDirector also determined the most influential director to be Sam Mostyn, based on the highest market cap of directors with whom she shares a board table at Transurban and Mirvac.