*This article was taken from the May issue of Wired magazine.
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Who are the people who shape the Wired world? Which influencers can make or break a product launch, or determine how we'll spend our leisure time? We wanted to know. With input from 120 experts in fields from architecture to advertising, software to science, we present Wired's first annual survey of Britain's top digital power-brokers
Today we count down (or, to be more accurate, count up) positions 51 to 100. Check back next week for more, or consult the May issue for the entire list today!
51. Tom Standage
Business affairs editor, The Economist
The London-based journalist takes care of The Economist's back end, edits Technology Quarterly, writes books and is an all-round talking head on the social impact of tech.
52. Rory Sutherland
Vice-chairman, Ogilvy Group UK
An ad man who gives TED talks and promotes marketing as a cure for society's ills. He creates interactive campaigns that mix advertising and entertainment.
53. Jack Schulze & Matt Webb
Founders, Schulze & Webb; BERG
This design/engineering/tinkering team made their name as Schulze
& Webb. Now part of BERG (qv Matt Jones), they've made waves with Mag+, a concept e-magazine.
54. Anthony Dunne
Head, Royal College of Art Design Interactions department
Dunne is inspiring a new generation of artists in the design potential of digital technologies.
55. Clare Reddington
Director, iShed, Pervasive Media Studio
Bristol's iShed brings creatives and technology together and showcases projects for potential backers.
56. Russell Davies
Writer, speaker, conference organiser
Having worked in advertising for clients such as Microsoft and Nike, Davies is now a prolific tech pundit -- not least here.
57. Mike Butcher
Editor, TechCrunch Europe
The internet journalist is plugged into the entrepreneurial scene:
TechCrunch coverage can make or break start-ups.
58. Ed Richards
Chief executive, Ofcom
As head of Ofcom, Richards has a powerful say on media and telecoms policy -- so long as Labour stays in office.
59. David Leftley
Head, Vodafone Ventures Europe
Leftley is in charge of Vodafone's venture arm in Europe. He is also an influential mentor at Seedcamp.
60. Richard Titus
CEO, Associated Northcliffe Digital
Heading the Daily Mail group's acquisitive digital arm, Titus oversees Jobsite, Findaproperty, Globrix and Motors.co.uk.
61. Nick Robertson
CEO, Asos
Robertson has taken Asos from a niche fashion website into a retailer taking £96.5m over the first half of 2009.
62. Robin Klein
Cofounder, The Accelerator Group
A serial entrepreneur whose Accelerator Group is an active investor in startups such as Skimlinks and Wonga. Father of Saul Klein (qv); involved with Seedcamp.
63. Steve Alder
General manager for devices, O2
The original iPhone came to UK shores courtesy of Alder. If he gets his way, the next iPhone will be an O2 exclusive.
64. Joe Cohen
CEO, Seatwave
With Seatwave, Cohen gave fans a safe way to offload unwanted tickets. His next task: overturning outdated UK laws to let fans resell football tickets.
<img src="http://cdni.wired.co.uk/190x120/a_c/Blake Chandlee-052388_v1CMYK.jpg" alt="Blake Chandlee"/>
65. Blake Chandlee
VP of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Facebook
Facebook might have grown up in north America, but Blake Chandlee is bringing it to the world. As the company's vice-president of EMEA and emerging markets, Chandlee determines where the social-networking site opens new offices and co-ordinates international strategy -- a role in which he has delivered strong results. "When I joined the company we were 70 per cent US-based in terms of users, and now we're 70 per cent international," says the 43-year-old from his office in London's West End." And last September we announced that we were cash flow-positive."
A serial entrepreneur, Chandlee was involved in a number of start-ups (he founded Super Markets Online) before moving from Yahoo's US operation to its British version in 2003. Four years later Owen Van Natta, then Facebook's chief operating officer, made him an offer that he couldn't refuse. "He asked me if I wanted to be the first international employee of Facebook and open the London offices. That appealed to my entrepreneurial spirit, and the fact that it was a great brand made it all the more attractive."
Since taking up the post in September 2007, his main focus has been on advertising, the site's primary source of revenue. "We have two advertising platforms: one geared towards the big, top 200 brands and another self-service one going after budgets that are designed for search and performance," Chandlee says. He adds that 85 of the top 100 brands now use Facebook as a significant part of their overall marketing strategy -- twice the number of a year ago.
So what next? "We're opening offices in Asia during Q2 of this year," Chandlee says. And Facebook is experimenting with geotagging, which could offer enormous potential: with 50 per cent of all UK mobile internet time spent on Facebook, according to the Global System for Mobile Communications Association, a location-based element would enable the network to send users targeted adverts for local businesses with meticulous precision.
66. Mat Hunter
Chief design officer, Design Council "Design thinking" in the public sector? The IDEO alumnus is making it happen, advising the NHS and Home Office.
67. Ian Livingstone
Life President, Eidos
Livingstone secured some of Eidos's biggest franchises, including Tomb Raider. He also speaks for the wider UK games industry with the Games Up? lobbying group.
68. Pete Cashmore
Technology and social-media consultant
Cashmore's blog, Mashable, is read by over two million visitors and takes an estimated $166,000 per month.
69. Carolyn Dailey
MD public policy Europe, Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest entertainment companies.
Dailey talks to policymakers on behalf of the business's European divisions.
70. David Bott
Director of innovation programmes, Technology Strategy Board
Since 1994 this public body has backed around 800 R&D projects, investing £1bn. Bott chooses who gets the cash.
71. Sam & Dan Houser
VPs, Rockstar Games
The smartest and funniest satire around isn't a film or book, but the Grand Theft Auto franchise. GTA5 is coming soon.
72. Natalie Massenet
Chairman and founder, Net-a-Porter
The success of Net-a-Porter has placed Massenet in fashion's top tier. She's also launched the crunch-friendly the Outnet, a designer discount site.
73. Carolyn McCall
Chief executive, Guardian Media Group
Guardian websites had 36 million users in January. But reach hasn't been matched by business success: cumulative losses remain substantial. McCall's financial support makes it happen.
74. Oli Barrett
Entrepreneur, connector
The speed-networking pioneer has an awesome contacts book. He set up the Make Your Mark with a Tenner charity.
75. Dr Tim Hubbard
Head of informatics, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
Hubbard is organising human genetic information and, unlike Craig Venter, ensuring it remains in the public domain.
76. Matt Biddulph
API evangelist at Nokia, Berlin
Now based in Berlin with Nokia, this software designer/creative technologist -- and originator of "Silicon Roundabout" -- remains a key presence on the UK tech scene.
77. Claire Enders
CEO and founder, Enders Analysis
Among the mass of reports and forecasts, the outspoken media analyst's voice carries weight. Often seen berating TV execs.
78. Andy Gibson
Cofounder, School of Everything
School of Everything matches those with a skill to teach with those who want to learn. His other projects include Mindapples and Social by Social.
79. Thomas Heatherwick
Designer/artist
Heatherwick, 40, the sculptor behind the controversial "B of the Bang", gets a boost for his extraordinary UK Pavilion at this summer's Shanghai Expo.
80. Spencer Hyman
Entrepreneur and director-at-large
The former CEO at last.fm, Hyman is now a well-connected non-exec, investor, director or adviser at start-ups such as LinkedIn and Culture24.
81. Matt Adams
Cofounder, Blast Theory
Brighton-based Blast Theory is an influential creator of non-commercial games -- from context-aware mobile games to real-world documentary games.
82. Iain Dodsworth
CEO, TweetDeck
The man who made Twitter intelligible now plans to make money from it with the paid-for TweetDeck Pro, aimed at "power tweeters".
83. Matt Locke
Commissioning editor for education, C4
As head of C4's cross-platform educational projects, Locke has become an exponent of innovative storytelling.
84. Paula Le Dieu
Director of digital, BFI
Le Dieu has made much of the BFI archive available via download, BFI Screenonline or its YouTube channel.
85. Jon and Tracy Morter
Internet campaigners
Their Facebook campaign "Rage Against the Machine for Christmas No 1" denied Simon Cowell his X Factor chart-topper. Next -- backing Rik Mayall's World Cup song.
86. Jeremy Ettinghausen
Digital publisher, Penguin UK
Ettinghausen finds new ways to distribute and promote books, such as through the interactive We Tell Stories project.
87. Andy Hobsbawm
European chairman, Agency.com
The interactive marketer keeps up his profile via conferences and journalism. As cofounder of non-profit Green Thing, he's also "inspiring people to lead a greener life".
88. Aleks Krotoski
Tech journalist, net pundit
Krotoski has a presence in everything tech, from academic papers to The Guardian's podcasts and the BBC's documentary series Virtual Revolution.
89. Richard Moross
Founder & CEO, moo.com
Moross rebooted the business card and proved that e-commerce (an arcane model whereby firms sell items for more than they cost to make) is good business.
90. Dan and Adrian Hon
Cofounders, Six to Start
The London-based brothers run this award winning entertainment company making pioneering ARGs and cross-platform productions.
91. Andy Budd & Richard Rutter
Founders, ClearLeft
ClearLeft's mission is simple: to make websites better. They've worked with Amnesty, The Times and Gumtree. Their next task is bringing the Radio 4 website up to date.
92. John Newbigin
Chairman, Culture24
Newbigin is involved in promoting culture and making it accessible to a varied audience. Having advised a number of Labour ministers, he is on the board of Becta, which promotes the use of tech in learning.
<img src="http://cdni.wired.co.uk/190x120/g_j/Gregor Pryor-051553_v2CMYK.jpg" alt="Gregor Pryor"/>
93. Gregor Pryor
Partner, Reed Smith LLP "All the old laws relating to copyright and intellectual property are in disarray," says Gregor Pryor, a partner in the technology and media team at London solicitors Reed Smith, and the man who manages intellectual-property issues for almost every big tech, TV and music start-up in the UK."The digital world has leapt ahead of the legal one."
Pryor, 35, has made a name for himself as the legal profession's digital John the Baptist since qualifying as a solicitor 11 years ago and, by chance, landing a job in the newly emerging world of digital media. "I trained with an established copyright lawyer who was already developing an interest in digital media," he says, "and my first job, at Music Choice [the music-distribution company], was trying to help big names like Sky, Sony and Warner Music come to terms with the implications of interactive technologies."
He left the company after a management buy-out in 2005 and joined Reed Smith, whose broadcasting and media clients were, he says, "bewildered" by the legal and business implications of the digital world. "They expected copyright law to protect them," he says, "and it wasn't. The law was just not keeping up with the possibilities of broadband -- which meant you could suddenly distribute content to 800 million people." He now advises on the legal issues of almost every aspect of new technology, from the acquisition and development of content to start-ups and the exploitation of intellectual property.
Recent clients include Bebo, last.fm, GoMix, Mendeley, RjDj, Mixcloud and Taptu. "Someone told me when I started out that in the digital world everything is possible -- technology can make anything happen and it is up the existing players to respond accordingly," Pryor says. "Spotify is a good example, with some labels embracing it enthusiastically and others being more circumspect. The one thing technology won't do is go away."
This year, Pryor says, there will be calls for increased regulation of the online world: "Just look at Google in Italy, in fact at anything involving Google and the law."But he's cautious about how much effect any new rules might have. "There's the problem that one country will opt out of the usual rules and provide an unregulated zone on the internet where those who want to break the law can thrive," he says. "We are going to need world laws if we want to go that route -- some lawyers think we even need laws in space to regulate digital media."
94. Nicole Yershon
Director of innovative solutions, Ogilvy
Yershon's networking proficiency and ubiquity at conferences mean she's a degree of separation away from most people in the ad and creative industries.
95. Christopher Bailey
Chief creative officer, Burberry
Bailey is creating a digital fashion brand, turning macs (the other sort) into social media with the Art of the Trench site and live-streaming runway shows in 3D.
96. Margaret Robertson
Gaming consultant and writer
The well-connected former editor of Edge magazine has advised Sony, Channel 4, GameCity, Free Radical Design, Kuju and the Rank Group.
97. Hans Ulrich Obrist
Art critic; codirector, Serpentine gallery
As Serpentine codirector, Ulrich has sought to bridge the art world with those of science, philosophy and digital culture. A power-connector.
98. Judith Clegg
Founder, The Glasshouse/Venturing Unlimited
An entrepreneur and consultant to entrepreneurs. At Glasshouse events, says Craigslist's CEO, "You can't chuck a brick without hitting a mogul or maven."
99. Shane Walter
Creative director, onedotzero
As curator of the V&A's Decode exhibition, Walter gave digital design some establishment respectability.
100. Angel Gambino
VP business development, Sonico
She advises companies such as Sellaband and Media Friends. Sits on the board of Sonico, a social-networking site.
Have your say
Are you in this list? Should you be? Whatever your views, leave your thoughts in the comments below. And check back next week for the next list of positions, from 50 to 1.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
