 No. 36 Ben Verwaayen, CEO, BT
Last year's position: 25
Ben Verwaayen has slipped slightly since last year's poll. It could be that talk of his succession influenced our judges or it could just be a sign that he won't be setting as many agendas now.
Either way, last time he was in not for parochial reasons - clearly there are dozens of telco CEOs and he just happens to run a big one near to Silicon Towers - but because he was trailblazing how to transform an unwieldy, conservative beast.
The past 12 months, if anything, have seen his programmes to roll out broadband and focus on ICT services as much as 'the network' gather pace. BT led others in racking up debt. Now it is showing other, mainly formally state-owned giants, how to overhaul their business.
Further developments will centre on what BT offers customers (think SLAs based on customer results rather than techie tick boxes). Expect this determined Dutchman to keep on driving change.
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