Niklas Zennström - Agenda Setters 2009

Name: Niklas Zennström

Title: Co-founder of Skype, Joost, Joltid, Kazaa

Position: 11    Last year: Not ranked

Why? Being a serial - and successful - entrepreneur

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Niklas Zennström is best known as co-founder of Skype - the voice over IP internet telephony service that has been enabling the wired world to talk for free since 2003 and, more recently, to indulge in video calling too. As such, he's a regular feature on the Agenda Setters list.

Indeed, since Skype turned up on the tech scene it's tough to find a year when Zennström hasn't figured in this list - back in 2007 and 2006 he made the top 10; in 2005 he ranked in the top five and made the top three in 2004. This year the serial entrepreneur continues to be a serial Agenda Setter, landing just outside the top 10 in 11th place.

So what's so special about Zennström? In the words of one judge he's "a one-man innovation powerhouse". As well as co-founding Skype - and selling it on yet keeping hold of the P2P technology which underpins the service - Zennström has a raft of other start-ups to his name.

His founder credits can be found on video-on-demand service Joost; P2P software firm Joltid; and file-sharing software company Kazaa, among others. He's also co-founded London-based VC fund Atomico Ventures, which put money into a wealth of other tech ventures including wi-fi sharing community FON and music discovery service Last.fm. Its tagline is 'Investing in Disruption'.

If you thought that wasn't enough, there's a CSR angle too, in the form of Zennström Philanthropies, another company he co-founded which supports work on human rights, combating climate change and encouraging social entrepreneurship.

Zennström's pioneering of P2P for voice and now video continues to see his influence being felt - and increasingly so. As one Agenda Setters judge notes: "The green agenda is giving a greater importance to telepresence - Skype video is at last bringing the videophone to the masses."