For the first time since the poll’s launch in 2000 a Microsoft executive holds the top spot – but it’s not Bill Gates nor Steve Ballmer, neither of whom make the list. Ray Ozzie, chief software architect at Microsoft, wins the number 1 spot on the Agenda Setters poll for leading the company into the post-Bill Gates era and proving he’s a radical change force within the software giant as it moves into the world of online software services.
Another Microsoft executive, chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie, comes in at number 24 for taking over Bill Gates’ jobs of articulating Microsoft’s technical philosophy and leading the research for Redmond’s next-generation of products. Both winners reveal a ‘changing of the guard’ in the tech industry where the founders and CEOs of major tech companies are ceding control to a new wave of leaders.
More changings of the guard are seen in the new Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz (46) debuting on the list instead of Sun chairman and founder Scott McNealy; and in Dell CEO Kevin Rollins (45) taking the spot of Dell founder Michael Dell.
Tony Hallett, editor and site director of silicon.com, said: “Our annual poll continues to reveal the major themes in the tech industry from the re-emergence of Asia on the global stage to the innovation taking place in online media. The poll has developed from being focused on corporate CEOs and politicians to being dominated by the creators and inventors of technologies and ideas that will shape the industry for years to come.”
Other interesting results from this year’s survey include:
Google dominates. Four executives from Google make the list, the most representatives from one company ever in the history of the poll, revealing Google’s continuing ability to innovate and willingness to go head-to-head with Microsoft. The Google Agenda Setters are: CEO Eric Schmidt (3), co-founders Larry Page and Serge Brin (23) and Omid Kordestani, VP global sales and business development (50).
Asia goes global. Alibaba.com CEO Jack Ma (11) is changing the way people trade around the world. Huawei Technologies CEO Ren Zhengfei comes in at number 25 for expanding outside of China – he’s one spot above rival Cisco CEO John Chambers. Also Indian outsourcing leaders S Ramadorai, CEO at TCS, (22) and Nandan Nilekani, CEO at Infosys, (40) get the nod for turning their companies into global leaders.
Anti-establishment. Carrying the open source flag are Bruce Perens (36) and Mozilla Foundation chair Mitch Kapor (28). Also chosen for his anti-establishment activity in the book publishing industry is Bob Young, CEO of Lulu.com, at number 18 (up from 49 last year).
End of IT support? Jim Ginsburgh, VP enterprise architecture at BP, comes in at 17 for designing a ground-breaking scheme whereby select BP employees are given an allowance in exchange for handling their own IT support.
Web 2.0. A slew of winners are chosen for creating innovative websites and user-generated content including: Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales (7), YouTube co-founders Chad Hurley and Steven Chen (9), Flickr co-founders Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake (27), Craigslist founder Craig Newmark (37) and Digg founder Kevin Rose (49).
Rupert Murdoch vs citizen journalism. The News Corp chairman and CEO wins the number 4 spot for buying MySpace and developing a solid internet strategy. He is the only individual to appear on every Agenda Setters poll since its inception in 2000. A few rungs down the list is OhMyNews.com founder and CEO Oh Yeon-Ho (16), for threatening traditional media by allowing citizens to become journalists.
The top 10 Agenda Setters for 2006 are:
1. Ray Ozzie, chief software architect, Microsoft
2. The next generation
3. Eric Schmidt, CEO, Google
4. Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO, News Corp
5. Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple
6. Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman, One Laptop Per Child project
7. Jimmy Wales, founder and chair, Wikimedia Foundation
8. Ashley Highfield, director of new media and technology, BBC
9. Chad Hurley and Steven Chen, co-founders, YouTube
10. Niklas Zennstrom, CEO, Skype.
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