No. 26 John Chambers, CEO, Cisco
Last year's position: Not placed
Why? He's Mr Networking
John Chambers has been president and CEO of Cisco since January 1995 and so, among other accomplishments, successfully rode the wild dot-com wave right from the start.
Cisco continues to dominate the networking gear arena but what impressed the Agenda Setters panel even more was Chambers' influence across the worldwide tech business. He's one of the few tech luminaries along with Bill Gates who is called in to global events such as the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to hold forth on wider IT issues.
He's also supremely well-connected in political circles - a type of power all of its own. He's currently vice chairman of US President Bush's National Infrastructure Advisory Council and previously served on President Clinton's Trade Policy Committee.
The only question for the future is whether the rest of Cisco can keep up with its whirlwind boss.
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
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