Who is the Destroyer?

Something that I have noticed while reading Atlas Shrugged so far is that Rand enjoys being very mysterious. I first noticed this when Francisco d'Anconia was introduced. Then and now, Rand continues to leave little room for imagination on what his possible motives are for destroying the business that he dreamed of taking over and improving exponentially since a young age, as well as who he is working with and what they plan to gain at the end of it. Rand only keeps this mysteriousness going when in this weeks reading we are introduced to a character that is referred to as the "destroyer". He is someone whose identity is unknown but it is certain that he is behind all the disappearances of all the great industrialists of this era at seemingly the worst possible times. For example in this reading he was behind the retirement of Dannager who announced it to Dagny after he had a long meeting with a unknown person whom Dagny assumes that it was the destroyer but of course Dannager, like all the others give us no hints. Those are two things that really grab my interest about the destroyer; he somehow is able to remain anonymous and is able to convince men to just destroy their fortunes and just disappear.  How is one man able to have that much power to persuade so many men? I also can't help but wonder if he was possibly the mysterious man that was lurking outside of Dagny's office, which when I read was something I overlooked as unimportant but now makes sense. Maybe it is the same man who has yet to be introduced to us but who's name is the subject of a open ended question that is repeated throughout the novel as a representation of hopelessness. Maybe the destroyer is John Galt?