The Daily Record launches MD500 list of top business leaders

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For 2026, The Daily Record is launching a new recognition platform that will be the end-all, be-all list for influential leaders across the professional sectors that define the Old Line State.

The MD500 is The Daily Record’s first-ever list of the state’s most powerful and impactful leaders in business, nonprofits, law, government and higher education.

The MD500 magazine releasing in late July will be essential reading for any businessperson and legal professional who wants to know which top movers and shakers to follow, from the halls of political power in Annapolis to the boardrooms of Baltimore, the Washington metro area, the mountainous Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore.

The MD500 is based on staff research — though recommendations are accepted — and the executives on the list are not ranked. Editorial staff, led by new Editor Kendyl Kearly, select the winners. The Daily Record will categorize leaders according to more than 20 major sectors, including and well beyond the news outlet’s traditional spotlights on the legal and political industries.

“The Daily Record’s readers are probably familiar with our Power Lists, but they haven’t seen a list like this one,” Kearly said. “The MD500 will be a monumental group.”

This list marks an evolution in The Daily Record’s approach to definitive honorific platforms, taking the Power Lists of the past and bringing them forward for a future that recognizes every one of Maryland’s defining industries and centers of power as inextricably connected.

Moreover, it builds on The Daily Record’s legacy of innovation in journalism, dating back to its founding in 1888. Back then, the Baltimore outlet set the standard for what a professional trade publication would look like; today, the media company continues that tradition with the dynamic, multiplatform MD500.

“While we’ve been highlighting the most influential Marylanders in various sectors for over a century, this change elevates that mission by dramatically increasing the number of professions and professional leaders honored,” said Suzanne Fischer-Huettner, managing director of The Daily Record. “In addition, it puts all that information into one source — powered by a robust website, as well as a high-end gloss magazine — for our readers to reference at any time of the year.”

“The Maryland 500 represents the premier recognition platform for professional leaders who have set the foundation for Maryland’s economic success and built upon that base to chart our state’s future growth,” Fischer-Huettner said. “This is the gold standard to acknowledge the impact of innovators and icons across the Free State’s most important public and private sectors.”

The Daily Record editors choose which organizations and leaders make the list – and what we say about them. The MD500 is not an award or an endorsement; it’s instead a recognition that a person holds a position of power.

Here are the categories:

• Accounting
• Agriculture
• Alternative Dispute Resolution
• Appellate Law
• Architecture
• Arts & Entertainment
• Banking
• Business Law
• Construction
• Credit Unions
• Criminal Law
• Cybersecurity
• Economic Development
• Employment Law
• Energy
• Engineering
• Family Law
• Health Care
• Higher Education
• Hospitality/Tourism
• Immigration Law
• Insurance
• Intellectual Property Law
• Lobbyists
• Manufacturing
• Medical Malpractice Law
• Nonprofits
• Personal Injury Law
• Private high schools
• Private elementary/middle schools
• Real Estate, Commercial
• Real Estate, Residential
• Real Estate services – mortgage/title
• Retirement/Assisted living
• Technology
• Trusts & Estates Law
• Wealth management
• Worker’s Compensation

This article has been updated.