An individual who runs a business, acting as the nominal owner.
The pointer may have a personal stake in the business, or even own it outright under an assumed name; a practice which is technically illegal, but nevertheless fairly common.
A pointer is useful for a businessperson who operates several different organizations or establishments, and may need to file a surrender of debts on one of them. Being a pointer (rather than the outright owner) of such a business protects the income of the other businesses from collections under the surrender of debts.
An example of a pointer was Vonnith.