Top Agenda Setters - Agenda Setters 2008
silicon.com chooses the top 50 most influential individuals in the worldwide technology and IT industries – business leaders, CEOs, CIOs, techies, open source gurus, security experts, visionaries, entrepreneurs and politicos
Tim Berners-Lee
World wide web inventor
Tim Berners-Lee, an Agenda Setter many times before, enjoys his first trip to the top spot. His win reflects the profound impact the web has on how we live and work today. Berners-Lee is as... more
Steve Jobs
Apple CEO
That Steve Jobs should appear on the Agenda Setters list again in 2008 should surprise no one: the Apple boss has been a stalwart of the list for some years. His continued presence, however, is... more
Richard Thomas
UK information commissioner
Richard Thomas has dominated headlines this year, from punishing government departments for a tide of data breaches, to fighting proposals for a super database of UK communications. ... more
Jimmy Wales
Wiki Media founder
Jimmy Wales, founder of Wiki Media - and creator of the popular and sometimes controversial user-generated online encyclopedia Wikipedia - is back on the Agenda Setters list after a year-long... more
Mike Lynch
Autonomy founder and CEO
After missing out last year, previous Agenda Setter Mike Lynch returns to the list with an all time high at number five. The Autonomy founder and CEO remains the driving force behind the... more
Eric Schmidt
Google CEO
Despite dropping three places from last year, Eric Schmidt makes it into the Agenda Setters top 10 for the fifth year in a row. The Google chief oversees a company that continues to wield... more
Ashley Highfield
Project Kangaroo CEO
Since his appearance at number five on the Agenda Setters last year, Highfield has overseen the hugely successful launch of the BBC's online in-demand TV service, iPlayer - then moved onto pastures... more
Viviane Reding
European commissioner for information society and media
Viviane Reding, the formidable European commissioner for information society and media, makes her second appearance on the Agenda Setters list. Up two spots from last year, she continues to have a... more
Werner Vogels
Amazon VP and CTO
A newcomer to the Agenda Setters list, Werner Vogels is making waves in internet retailing as chief technology officer and VP of Amazon.com. Since joining the company in 2004 Vogels has been... more
Warren East
ARM CEO
Earlier this year ARM passed a significant milestone, with 10 billion products containing ARM chips shipped - more than one per every person on the planet, its CEO Warren East pointed out. The... more
Best of the rest
11. JP Rangaswami
Blogger and BT Design MD
12. Sverre Jarp
Cern chief technology officer
13. Craig Mundie
Microsoft chief research and strategy officer
14. Ray Kurzweil
Inventor and futurist
15. Don Grice
IBM chief engineer
16. Howard Stringer
Sony CEO
17. Jonathon Porritt
Environmentalist
18. Jeff Bezos
Amazon CEO
19. Justin Rattner
Intel CTO
20. Mark Hurd
HP CEO
21. Jeffrey Katzenberg
DreamWorks Animation CEO
22. Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone and Evan Williams
Twitter co-founders
23. Ray Ozzie
Microsoft chief software architect
24. Peter Bazalgette
Reality TV guru
25. Greg Wyler
O3b founder and CEO
26. Neil Bacon
iWantGreatCare.org founder
27. Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie
RIM co-CEOs
28. Peter Sunde and Gottfrid Svartholm
The Pirate Bay operators
29. Simon Ponsford
Cranberry founder and CEO
30. Richard Stallman
Free software advocate
31. Jonney Shih
Asus CEO
32. Neelie Kroes
Europe competition commissioner
33. Edward Wray
Betfair co-founder
34. Brent Hoberman
lastminute.com co-founder
35. Hugh Loebner
AI researcher
36. Sabeer Bhatia
Serial entrepreneur
37. S Gopalakrishnan
Infosys CEO
38. Mark Shuttleworth
Ubuntu project founder
39. Ajay Mathur
Indian energy czar
40. Aaron Seigo
KDE project developer
41. Marc Benioff
Salesforce.com CEO
42. Bruce Schneier
BT chief security technology officer
43. Jeremy Allison
Samba project co-founder
44. Shai Agassi
Better Place founder and CEO
45. Christina Domecq
SpinVox CEO and co-founder
46. Arianna Huffington
Journalist and political activist
47. Mark Zuckerberg
Facebook founder
48. Dan Nye
LinkedIn CEO
49. Jonathan Zittrain
Cyber scholar
50. Robin Li
Baidu CEO
