Who chose the 2008 Agenda Setters?

Meet the judging panel...

Published: 7 October 2008 08:40 BST by silicon.com

Tags: agenda setters

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The 2008 Agenda Setters panel convenes in London

Steve Ranger, silicon.com editor and panel chair
Steve Ranger is responsible for the overall content on silicon.com spanning news, analysis and special coverage. An editor at silicon.com for three and a half years, he has a decade of experience in technology journalism. Areas of expertise include the public sector, offshoring, security and web 2.0.

James Bennet, consultant
James has worked in and around the tech sector for 15 years and has a wide network of contacts at global tech firms as well as at start-ups. As UK director of technology, communications and entertainment at Ernst & Young, he has extensive knowledge of how the tech industry operates. James also founded events company ETF.

Sylvia Carr, silicon.com managing editor
Sylvia oversees all non-news content on silicon.com including columnists, special reports and analysis. She has more than 10 years' experience in business and technology journalism, eight of which have been spent at CNET Networks publications.

Michael Chissick, lawyer

Michael is head of a group specialising in information technology, outsourcing and ecommerce at law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse. He is a regular lecturer on legal issues at the Institute of Direct Marketing and the City of London Business School, and a writer of books on internet law and e-government.

Rupert Goodwins, journalist
Rupert is editor of IT news publication and silicon.com sister site ZDNet UK. He has extensive journalism experience including stints at IT Week and PC Magazine. A former software developer, he is a frequent commentator on business and technology issues to radio and television news and current affairs programmes.

Mark Kobayashi-Hilary, outsourcing expert

Mark is a writer, researcher and industry commentator with expertise in globalisation, outsourcing and offshoring, and corporate change. He's a board member on the National Outsourcing Association, a founding member of the British Computer Society and lecturer at South Bank University.

Clive Longbottom, analyst

Clive is service director at and founder of analyst house Quocirca where he covers the technologies that facilitate the core processes in companies' value chains - from collaborative tools and service-based architectures to outsourcing and security. He has been an IT analyst for more than 10 years including a stint as VP of the Meta Group.

Julie Meyer, venture capitalist
Julie is founder and CEO of Ariadne Capital, an investment and advisory firm focused on the software and services, new media, communications and life services sectors. She has 18 years of investment and advisory experience, helping start-up businesses and industry standards to emerge and establish themselves.

Nigel Shadbolt, academic

Nigel is professor of artificial intelligence and deputy head of the School of Electronics and Computer Science at Southampton University, where he focuses on research in AI and cognitive science. He is also a founding firector of the Web Science Research Initiative, a joint endeavour between the University of Southampton and MIT.

Richard Sykes, consultant
Richard is the chairman of the outsourcing and offshoring group at Intellect, the UK's IT, telecoms and electronics industry trade association. Richard has held senior executive roles at major global multinationals including chemicals giant ICI and Morgan Chambers as well as non-executive chairmanships at smaller organisations. He is currently a board-level adviser on IT strategy and implementation.

Mark Taylor, open source guru

Mark is CEO of consultancy Sirius, founder of the Open Source Consortium and a writer and speaker on all aspects of the open source phenomenon. He has been instrumental in some of the largest open source deployments in the UK and has advised both public and private sector organisations.

Charles Ward, Intellect COO
Charles Ward is chief operating officer of Intellect, the industry body for the IT, telecoms and electronics sectors in the UK. A former marketing director at Computer Services and Software Associations, Charles has held a variety of marketing and sales roles at Compaq, De La Rue, Johnson & Johnson and 3M UK.

Kevin Warwick, academic

Kevin Warwick is professor of cybernetics at the University of Reading, where he carries out research in artificial intelligence, control, robotics and biomedical engineering. Kevin took his first degree at Aston University, followed by a PhD and a research post at Imperial College, London. He subsequently held positions at Oxford, Newcastle and Warwick universities before being offered the Chair at Reading.

Process
The panel met in September 2008 in central London to debate candidates for inclusion on the Agenda Setters list. In the 24 hours following the debate the panellists each nominated 20 individuals in descending order. That voting process produced the final Top 50.