Craig Mundie - Agenda Setters 2008

Name: Craig Mundie

Title: Microsoft chief research and strategy officer

Position: 13    Last year: Not ranked

Why? Protecting Microsoft's future

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• Sverre Jarp
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• Ray Kurzweil

After Bill Gates' departure from Microsoft this summer, Craig Mundie will play a critical role in steering the software giant into the future.

The company is facing increasing competition around web technologies - as demonstrated by its failed attempt to buy Yahoo! - and perhaps even a chink in its operating system's armour with the often-criticised Windows Vista.

Microsoft will only retain its dominance if it focuses on innovation, agreed the Agenda Setters panel - and so Mundie's leadership of the research division is becoming increasingly vital. His role is seen as even more important than chief software architect Ray Ozzie, who came in at number 23 this year.

The panel praised Mundie, who joined Microsoft in 1992, for the work he's done to scout "great research talent" and for "taking the Microsoft billions and... redirecting it to break forward in a multitude of new directions".

It is to him that we look for the next generation of technology and products which will prop up the tech heavyweight in times to come.