No. 35 Stan Shih, founder, Acer
Last year's position: Not placed
Why? Championing cheap laptops for the First World
Stan Shih won his place on this year's top 50 for seeing cheap laptops as a business model, not a philanthropic ideal.
According to the Agenda Setters panel, the hardware company's founder has recognised both the threat and the potential presented by Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child project, which aims to create a $100 laptop for developing countries.
Acer's laptops take mobile computing to individuals who may not have been able to afford it previously - and not just in the third world. Thanks to Shih, shoppers can now pick up a laptop in Tesco for under £300.
It's this sort of price innovation that can narrow the digital divide and bring the benefits of technology to people from all walks of life. And Acer's growing market share for laptops proves cheap pays.
Take a walk down memory lane - and find out who made the Agenda Setters poll over the years:
"Ray Ozzie is a radical change force for Microsoft. He is moving them in a very different direction."
--Richard Sykes, Agenda Setters panellist
"My observation is that [kids today] are far more networked and open than any other generation we have ever seen."
--Peter Cochrane, Agenda Setters panellist
The world's most powerful women Forbes.com
Smart 50 - Asia's best users of IT ZDNet Asia
Chron 500 - The San Francisco Bay Area's top public companies San Francisco Chronicle
The 50 people who matter now Business 2.0
silicon.com and the Bathwick Group have created an opportunity for business and IT executives to share their experience with each other and thus enhance their knowledge of the IT marketplace.
Join our research panel, and you'll be asked to participate in short surveys - and then will be privy to the answers of all your colleagues, as we send you tailored versions of the results. For more about the Research Panel and how to join, click here
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