Ben Verwaayen, BT CEO
Position: 16 Last year: Not ranked
Why? Propelling BT into the 21st century
Agree with panel rating?
A lot has happened since Ben Verwaayen took over the UK telecoms incumbent in 2002.
Following the advent of increased broadband use and mobile phone penetration, BT's heartland revenues were being eroded. As a result, BT had to take up both broadband and mobile services, which it managed with an alacrity that would have been unthinkable for the telecoms provider before Verwaayen took the helm.
Although he has not appeared on the Agenda Setter's list for two years, the 2007 judges rated BT's CEO for championing initiatives such as the 21st Century Network (21CN) project - the company's shift to all-IP switching, which should position it as the carrier of choice for web 2.0 services.
Another recent innovation for the company is its Fusion project, which aims to give customers a seamless voice and data service both on the move and in the home.
Under Verwaayen, BT continues to set the agenda for telecoms services, even as its market becomes more competitive than ever.
Take a walk down memory lane - and find out who made the agenda setters poll in years past
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Content featuring Ben Verwaayen
Speaking at Alcatel-Lucent's 2009 Enterprise Forum in Paris, CEO Ben Verwaayen said the world is facing up to not one but two crises: the current financial turbulence and the ongoing threat of climate change.
CeBit has drawn a number of high-profile managers from the international IT sector to attend its conference panels, including SAP's co-CEO Leo Apotheker, Alcatel-Lucent's CEO Ben Verwaayen, Intel chairman Craig Barrett, Skype's COO Scott Durchslag...
Various tech CEOs have also 'moved on' this year - or announced plans to do so - including BT's CEO Ben Verwaayen, Vodafone's Arun Sarin and Yahoo! One notable gadget in the latter category that launched this year runs a shiny new open OS known as...
Alcatel-Lucent has appointed former BT CEO Ben Verwaayen as its new chief executive. The board said in a statement: "Philippe Camus and Ben Verwaayen are respected and experienced business leaders. Ben Verwaayen's years of experience in this...
Ben Verwaayen BT Yahoo! s board of directors won strong backing from shareholders at its annual meeting on Friday, with Jerry Yang, the company's embattled CEO, receiving 85 per cent of the vote in his favour.
Ben Verwaayen BT Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan is an unassuming man, who doesn't use his position to be imposing. It's less important for him to be the company's controller than to look like he is. Perhaps it comes from his background as an...
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