/pooh" bah'/ , ( often l.c. )
1. a person who holds several positions, esp. ones that give him or her bureaucratic importance.
2. a leader, authority, or other important person: one of the pooh bahs of the record industry.
3. a pompous, self-important person.
Also, Pooh-Bah, poobah .
[ 1880-85; after a character in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado, who holds all of the high offices of state simultaneously and uses them for personal gain ]