Name: Peter Pedersen

Title: CTO

Company: Rank Group

What they say about him: "Peter is a superb thinker with an outstanding ability to remain calm when under pressure. He's got a brain the size of a planet, accompanied by a sunny disposition."

Dane Peter Pedersen is something of an internet entrepreneur and visionary and in the 1990s was a key player in building up a digital agency that delivered web technologies for some major UK brands.

Pedersen went on to work for TV station Channel 4 where he led the successful delivery of the channel's interactive offering online and on TV, and he managed the technical build of the infrastructure and websites for Big Brother, E4, FilmFour and channel4.com.

More recently, as CTO of online gaming firm Blue Square Pedersen was instrumental in facilitating information sharing between rival companies during the denial of service blackmail attacks targeting the UK industry in 2004.

Last year Pedersen was promoted from his role at Blue Square to CTO of its parent Rank Group, where he has been tasked with putting IT at the heart of some major and rapid change at the organisation.

Pedersen collects and restores original oil and watercolour paintings, which he occasionally sells through his own online company, earth-collection.com.