Computer Weekly’s 14th annual UKtech50 ranking, published on June 27, 2024, placed Post Office Horizon campaigner Alan Bates first. The choice made a point about technology influence: it can come from exposing the harm caused by an IT system and pressing for accountability, not only from building products or running technology companies. This is a historical ranking, not a current assessment of UK technology leaders.
What UKtech50 2024 says about technology influence
UKtech50 is Computer Weekly’s editorial ranking of people it considered influential in UK technology. Its 2024 list uses a broad definition: it includes company leaders and researchers, but also public officials, regulators, campaigners, educators and people working on skills and inclusion. Those kinds of influence are not directly comparable; a senior public-sector role, a technical breakthrough and a campaign for accountability affect technology in different ways.
Computer Weekly said the ranking was shaped by AI, ethics, economic pressure, public-sector digitisation, regulation and diversity. The top five combined public-interest campaigning, AI, government digital delivery and autonomous vehicles: Alan Bates, Demis Hassabis, Richard Corbridge, Mustafa Suleyman and Alex Kendall.
Why Alan Bates ranked first
Bates, chair of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance, spent years challenging the Post Office Horizon system and campaigning for subpostmasters affected by it. His work helped bring the scandal into public view and sustain pressure for litigation, accountability and a public inquiry. Computer Weekly described him as the first UKtech50 winner who was not a conventional technology executive or official.
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That selection treats technology governance as part of technology leadership. The consequences of a system depend not only on how it is designed, but on how it is deployed, overseen and challenged when people report failures. Bates’s influence arose from pressing institutions to answer for those consequences. Computer Weekly’s accompanying interview with Bates also records his argument that the Post Office needed better technology, more forward-looking leadership and greater accountability and openness.
The complete UKtech50 2024 ranking
The following names, ranks and roles reflect Computer Weekly’s report on June 27, 2024. They are not necessarily current titles.
- Alan Bates — Post Office scandal campaigner and chair of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance; led a long campaign for accountability over Horizon.
- Demis Hassabis — Founder and CEO of Google DeepMind; a leading UK AI researcher and entrepreneur.
- Richard Corbridge — Chief digital and information officer at the Department for Work and Pensions; responsible for a large public-service technology portfolio.
- Mustafa Suleyman — CEO of Microsoft AI; DeepMind and Inflection AI co-founder appointed to lead Microsoft’s new AI organisation in 2024.
- Alex Kendall — CEO and co-founder of Wayve; led a UK autonomous-driving company that Computer Weekly reported had secured $1bn in investment.
- Daljit Rehal — Chief digital and information officer at HM Revenue & Customs; responsible for major tax, customs and national-insurance systems.
- Anne Keast-Butler — Director of GCHQ; the first woman to lead the intelligence agency, with senior intelligence and cybersecurity experience.
- Allison Kirkby — CEO of BT Group; became BT’s first female chief executive in February 2024.
- Melanie Dawes — Chief executive of Ofcom; led the communications regulator as its digital-platform and online-safety responsibilities grew.
- Michelle Donelan — Secretary of state for science, innovation and technology; led the government department responsible for technology and digital policy.
- Peter Kyle — Labour’s shadow secretary for science, innovation and technology; a prominent opposition voice on technology policy and AI.
- Clare Barclay — CEO of Microsoft UK; led the company’s UK business and relationships with customers and partners.
- Mike Potter — Chief digital officer for the UK government; held the central government digital leadership role after work in the Cabinet Office, HMRC and Thames Water.
- Laura Gilbert — Director of i.AI, the Incubator for AI at 10 Downing Street; combined data-science and AI-policy responsibilities, including the AI for Public Good programme.
- Nicola Hodson — CEO for UK and Ireland at IBM and deputy president of techUK; combined corporate leadership with a role in the technology trade body.
- Matt Clifford — Chair of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency; led the government-backed research agency and brought startup-investment and AI-policy experience.
- Anne Boden — Founder of Starling Bank; remained a prominent fintech figure after stepping back as CEO in 2023.
- Alan Chang — Founder and CEO of Fuse Energy; brought technology-startup experience to a renewable-energy business after working at Revolut.
- Chi Onwurah — Labour shadow minister for science, research and innovation; an engineer and former Ofcom technology executive with a parliamentary policy role.
- Toni Scullion — Computing-science teacher and founder of dressCode; promoted women’s participation in computing and co-founded the Ada Scotland Festival.
- Adrian Blundell — Chief digital and information officer at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office; led public-sector IT transformation, including after the FCO–DFID merger.
- Sarah Cardell — CEO of the Competition and Markets Authority; led a regulator increasingly focused on digital markets, AI and cloud competition.
- Bev White — CEO of Nash Squared; led an international technology recruitment, solutions and leadership-services business.
- Charles Forte — CIO at the Ministry of Defence; held a long-running senior defence technology role after earlier positions at Thames Water, Prudential and BP.
- John Quinn — CIO of NHS England; led the creation of a merged digital and technology function after NHS Digital’s integration.
- Ian Hogarth — Chair of the AI Safety Institute; chaired the government’s foundation-model taskforce and the institute’s early evaluation work.
- Karl Hoods — Group chief digital and information officer at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero; held cross-departmental digital, shared-services and productivity responsibilities.
- Gill Whitehead — Group director for online safety at Ofcom; helped shape the UK’s developing online-safety and digital-regulation framework.
- Alistair Forbes — CEO of the Scottish Tech Army; founded an initiative linking technology volunteers with public-sector digital projects.
- Greg Jackson — CEO of Octopus Energy; built the energy company around a technology-led platform and renewable-energy model.
- Debbie Forster — CEO of the Tech Talent Charter; led an industry-backed diversity initiative with more than 700 signatories, according to Computer Weekly.
- Lisa Heneghan — Global chief digital officer at KPMG; oversaw the firm’s global technology, people and innovation investment and digital-transformation agenda.
- Julian David — CEO of techUK; led the technology trade association and represented the sector in policy debates.
- Mark Logan — Chief entrepreneurial adviser to the Scottish government; helped advance recommendations for Scotland’s technology ecosystem, including Techscaler.
- Angela McLean — Chief scientific adviser to the UK government; served as the government’s first female chief scientific adviser and head of its science and engineering profession.
- Felicity Oswald — Interim CEO of the National Cyber Security Centre; helped build the NCSC and became interim chief executive after Lindy Cameron’s departure.
- Yvonne Gallagher — Digital director at the National Audit Office; led digital-insights work and brought public- and private-sector technology experience.
- Zahra Bahrololoumi — CEO of Salesforce UK and Ireland; led regional operations after senior technology-consulting work at Accenture.
- John Edwards — UK information commissioner; led the data-protection regulator, drawing on earlier privacy-regulator experience in New Zealand.
- Caroline Bellamy — Chief data officer at the Ministry of Defence; led defence-wide data transformation and work on the department’s data strategy.
- Craig Bright — Group CIO at Barclays; led group technology, including work involving AI, after senior global banking-technology roles.
- Darren Jones MP — Labour shadow chief secretary to the Treasury; a prominent technology-policy politician with parliamentary technology and ethics experience.
- Indro Mukerjee — CEO of Innovate UK; led the innovation agency and brought an engineering and electronics-skills background.
- Helen Kelisky — Managing director of Google Cloud UK and Ireland; led the regional business and go-to-market strategy.
- John Campbell — Chief operations officer for IT in the Scottish government; held a senior digital-operations role after leading cloud and digital services.
- Sheila Flavell — COO of FDM Group and president of techUK; combined IT-services leadership with advocacy for women in technology, returners and skills.
- Helen Thomas — CEO of Digital Health and Care Wales; led digital transformation and technology and data services for NHS Wales.
- Colin Birchenall — CDO at Glasgow City Council and CTO of the Digital Office for Scottish Local Government; held local-government technology roles and contributed to Scottish health and care data strategy.
- Anne-Marie Imafidon — CEO and founder of Stemettes; promoted women and girls in STEM and had previously been named Computer Weekly’s Most Influential Woman in UK Technology.
- June Angelides — VC at Samos Investments and founder of Mums in Technology; combined venture investing with support for mothers entering technology careers.
What the ranking reveals about UK technology in 2024
AI had become an institutional issue
AI influence in the list extended well beyond research. Hassabis represented frontier research and commercialisation; Suleyman, product strategy; Kendall, autonomous vehicles; Gilbert, government AI; Hogarth, safety and evaluation; and Clifford, public research funding. Craig Bright’s inclusion also pointed to enterprise adoption. Computer Weekly identified AI’s growing influence as one of the forces shaping the ranking.
Government and regulators were technology leaders too
Public-sector technology was prominent across departments, defence, health, intelligence and local government. Regulators also featured: Ofcom, the CMA and the Information Commissioner’s Office all affect the rules or conditions under which technology companies operate. This is policy and institutional influence; it does not necessarily indicate that an office-holder is a technical specialist.
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The ranking therefore mixes authority attached to public office with influence built through personal work. Its breadth is useful, but it also makes the positions difficult to compare on a single scale.
Skills, inclusion and regional ecosystems counted
Scullion, Forster, Imafidon and Angelides show that the list treated education, access and representation as part of technology’s future, not as side issues. Forbes, Logan, Campbell, Thomas and Birchenall also received separate recognition as digital leaders in the devolved nations. Four of those five appeared in the main 50, underscoring that the list was not confined to London-based private-sector executives.
Technology reached into energy and other sectors
Chang and Jackson represented technology applied to energy businesses and the energy transition. Their inclusion, alongside leaders in finance, transport and healthcare, reflects a definition of technology that follows its use across industries rather than stopping at software firms.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How Computer Weekly selected the ranking
Computer Weekly said its expert panel used five criteria:
- Influence: authority or ability to influence UK technology or people in positions of authority.
- Achievements: what the person achieved in the preceding 12 months.
- Profile: recognition as a role model or authority among peers.
- Leadership: leadership skill and contribution to technology’s role in the UK.
- Potential: likelihood of significant impact in the following 12 months.
The named panel comprised James Woodward, director of communications at BCS; Matthew Evans, director of markets at techUK; Rhona Carmichael, chief commercial officer at Nash Squared; and Robert Grimsey, group marketing director at Nash Squared. Nash Squared supported the ranking. The panel also drew on a reader vote, and Computer Weekly’s separate longlist article reported 434 nominations. The presence of a sponsor’s representatives on the panel is relevant context, but the published material does not establish that sponsorship determined the outcome.
The published account does not give candidate scores, criterion weightings, reader-vote totals or a detailed account of how panel disagreements were resolved. UKtech50 is best understood as Computer Weekly’s editorial and reader-informed recognition, not as a statistical index, government designation or objective measurement of influence.
Secondary lists in the 2024 feature
Computer Weekly also highlighted these subsets within its 2024 feature; they are editorial categories, not separately scored rankings.
Five highest-ranked women
- Anne Keast-Butler
- Allison Kirkby
- Melanie Dawes
- Michelle Donelan
- Clare Barclay
Digital leaders in the devolved nations
- Alistair Forbes
- Mark Logan
- John Campbell
- Helen Thomas
- Colin Birchenall
Is UKtech50 2024 still current?
It remains a record of Computer Weekly’s selection as published on June 27, 2024, but it is not a 2026 ranking. Roles, political offices and organisational responsibilities can change; treat the titles above as historical descriptions unless independently checked before reuse.
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Read the original UKtech50 2024 ranking and biographies, the 2024 longlist and nomination context, or the July 2, 2024 premium issue page.
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