Here are the members of the expert panel who voted and advised on the silicon.com CIO50.

Peter Breen, partner, Heidrick & Struggles

Peter Breen is a partner in the London office of executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles. Over the past 20 years he has been responsible for some of the most high-profile executive search assignments in the technology sector, working with organisations ranging from pre-revenue start-ups to multi-billion dollar industry leaders.

Prior to joining Heidrick & Struggles, Breen's early career was in the telecommunications industry with Plessey, ITT and his own venture capital-backed start-up, National Telephones Plc. Breen is a major shareholder in the firm; a twice-elected member of the Heidrick & Struggles International Executive Committee and elected chairman of the Global Partnership Council.

Paul Burfitt, ex-CIO, AstraZeneca

Paul Burfitt retired last year from pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca after seven years as global CIO where he led the creation of a new merged IS organisation comprising 4,000 staff globally, along with the delivery of savings and synergies in excess of $150m. He also sponsored a $1.7bn major outsourcing contract for the company's global IT infrastructure.

Burfitt is now an independent consultant and adviser to company boards, senior executives and IS leaders in FTSE100-level companies. He is also a member of the 'Professionalism in IT' steering board sponsored by the British Computer Society, NCC/CIO Connect, e-Skills UK and Intellect as well as a regular workshop leader and contributor to business schools and conferences.

Gavin Holland, partner, Heidrick & Struggles

Gavin Holland leads the European financial services infrastructure practice at executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles. Holland has deep specialist knowledge of the IT and operations functions globally in financial services and has worked for a variety of global institutions, including a number of prestigious hedge fund clients.

His recent search assignments have included CIOs as well as building out technology organisations for CIOs spanning infrastructure through to applications development, many of which have been in the area of front-office trading systems within financial services firms.

Cathy Holley, partner, Boyden UK

Cathy Holley is a partner with executive search company Boyden UK, focusing on placing CIOs and senior IT executives across a broad range of sectors. Holley started her career in technical support at IBM, moving on to senior sales and marketing roles in the retail banking sector. After seven years at IBM she joined the investment banking sector team at Oracle.

Holley moved into executive search in 1996 at Norman Broadbent, focusing on senior technology roles. She then joined the CIO practice at Heidrick & Struggles before becoming one of the three founding partners of Ellis Holley Maxwell (EHM), a niche CIO search firm, in 2002. EHM acquired the Boyden UK brand in 2003.

Mitchel Lenson, ex-CIO, Deutsche Bank

Mitchel Lenson recently retired from Deutsche Bank where he was group CIO with responsibility for IT and operations for all operating divisions of the Deutsche Bank Group. Lenson was also a member of the group operating committee and was on the executive committees of the corporate and investment bank and the private clients and asset management division.

Lenson spent over 25 years in the financial services industry having started with JP Morgan in 1977 as a graduate trainee. Since that time, during periods with Bank of America, Chase Manhattan, Irving Trust, American Express, CSFB and UBS Warburg, he has run a variety of business, operations and technology units.

Vicky Maxwell Davies, partner, Boyden UK

Vicky Maxwell Davies is a partner with Boyden UK, focusing on placing CIOs and their top teams across a broad range of sectors.

In 2002, as one of the three original partners, Maxwell Davies founded Ellis Holley Maxwell, which, after the acquisition of the Boyden UK business later that year, was renamed Boyden UK Ltd. Her earlier career includes spells at Norman Broadbent International and Whitehead Mann's CIO practice, as well as 10 years at IBM in sales, IT consultancy and marketing.

Brinley Platts, chairman, CIOdevelopment.com

Brinley Platts is well known for his work in IT executive personal development. He has been helping FTSE 100 CIOs and their teams with their effectiveness and business engagement for over 10 years. He is an authority on CIO career development and performance and has helped scores of CIOs achieve better insight into their personal strengths and drives.

Platts is a leading IT executive coach, researcher, author and creator of the authoritative CIO 'role-types' model of IT executive career development. He is currently investigating the expansion and future of the CIO mandate for the CSC Leading Edge Forum and is the sponsor of the first 'pocket MBA' for CIOs course in the UK run by the renowned Boston University School of Management.