UKtech50 2026: The most influential people in UK technology

1. Demis Hassabis, founder and CEO, Google DeepMind

Demis Hassabis founded artificial intelligence company DeepMind in 2010. The company, which was bought by Google in 2014 for about £400m, is involved in several AI projects across sectors, including the NHS. Before founding DeepMind, Hassabis completed a PhD in neuroscience at UCL. He is a two-time previous UKtech50 winner. 

2. James Wise, chair, Sovereign AI Fund

James Wise was appointed chair of the government’s Sovereign AI Unit in November 2025. The unit, which is backed by nearly £500m in investment, aims to turn British AI research into companies that can stoke economic growth. The unit acts like a venture capital fund, bringing together government, industry and investors to grow UK AI companies.

3. Kanishka Narayan, minister for AI and online safety, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

Kanishka Narayan was appointed to his role in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) in September 2025 and is responsible for AI opportunities, the AI Security Institute, government semiconductor strategy, online safety and tech for growth. He is also the MP for the Vale of Glamorgan.

4. Alison Kay, vice-president and managing director, AWS UK and Ireland

Alison Kay took on her role at Amazon Web Services (AWS) in November 2024 after an 18-year stint at EY. In her role at AWS, she has worked to help companies from startups to giants with their digital business transformation. She also sits on the board of the UK Investment Council.

5. Rob Thompson, chief digital, data and technology officer, Department of Health and Social Care

Former Home Office digital chief Rob Thompson joined the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) in May 2026. He is responsible for driving digital, data and technology transformation across the department and NHS England. Prior to his nearly decade-long stint at the Home Office, Thompson held several senior leadership roles, both in the public and private sectors.

6. Zoe Kleinman, technology editor, BBC News

Zoe Kleinman has been technology editor at BBC News since September 2021. She has been covering technology news for nearly 20 years on radio and television.

7. Sarah Turner, CEO and co-founder, Angel Academe

Sarah Turner founded Angel Academe, a pro-women and pro-diversity angel investment group focused on technology, and is currently CEO of the group. Until 2023, Turner was also an advisory board member of tech recruiter Spinks, and in 2007 co-founded consultancy Turner Hopkins, which helps businesses create digital strategies. Previously, Turner was an external board member and chair of the investment committee for venture capital fund the Low Carbon Innovation Fund and a board member of the UK Business Angels Association, the trade association for early-stage investment.

8. Alex Kendall, CEO, Wayve

Alex Kendall is the CEO and co-founder of Wayve, the UK startup using artificial intelligence to build a next-generation autonomous driving system. Under Kendall’s leadership, Wayve has quickly grown from a small startup to a genuine competitor and disruptor in the autonomous vehicle industry.

9. Melanie Dawes, chief executive, Ofcom

Melanie Dawes has headed up Ofcom since 2020, following her previous role as permanent secretary at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, as well as many other roles across the civil service. She has previously been a trustee at Patchwork Foundation, which aims to encourage underrepresented young people to participate in democracy, and a non-executive director of consumer group Which?

10. Danielle George, chief scientific advisor for national security, GCHQ; professor and vice-dean at the University of Manchester

Danielle George was appointed scientific advisor for national security at the beginning of 2025 and took on the role in April that year. She plays a crucial role in providing advice and supporting the delivery of science and technology for the UK intelligence community. 

11. Richard Horne, CEO, National Cyber Security Centre

Richard Horne was appointed CEO of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) in 2024. He joined from PwC UK, where he chaired the organisation’s cyber security practice. He is also a GCHQ board member.

12. Daljit Rehal, chief digital and information officer, HM Revenue & Customs; past BCS president

Former Centrica IT chief Daljit Rehal was appointed chief digital and information officer (CDIO) at HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) in September 2020. He is responsible for a budget of more than £1bn and oversees some of the highest-profile IT systems in government, such as taxes, national insurance and the customs applications at the UK’s complex post-Brexit borders. He sits on the board of HMRC. He has also taken on the role of senior responsible officer at Civil Service Live to promote technology and innovation across all departments. Rehal is also a past president of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT.

13. Sonia Patel, interim chief technology officer, DSIT

Sonia Patel became DSIT’s interim chief technology officer (CTO) in March 2026 on a fixed 12-month contract. The CTO role was held by David Knott since autumn 2023, however, at the end of 2025, he stepped down from the position due to family reasons. Prior to taking on the role at DSIT, Patel was instrumental in the NHS technology space. Patel joined government as the CIO of NHSX in 2020, right in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2022, she became the system CIO of NHS England before taking on the role of CTO in April 2024.

14. Greg Jackson, CEO, Octopus Energy

Greg Jackson founded and launched Octopus Energy in 2016. The company’s green tech platform sits at the heart of its success, and it has gone from strength to strength over the years. Octopus Energy is now the largest energy provider in the UK.

15. Robin Tombs, CEO, Yoti

Robin Tombs founded Yoti, which created a digitally native identity app, in 2014. The company and its product has become increasingly popular in the digital ID market, and now has more than 30 million downloads worldwide. He is also a thought leader within the technology industry, particularly around digital ID.

16. Julian David, CEO, TechUK

Julian David is the CEO of technology trade association TechUK. He was appointed as the director general of Intellect in March 2012 and led its transformation to TechUK in November 2013. David has spent more than 30 years in the technology industry, mostly working for IBM in various roles, including vice-president for small and medium business in the UK, Ireland, Netherlands and Africa, and then for five years as vice-president for public sector in the UK, Ireland and South Africa.

17. Liz Kendall, science, innovation and technology secretary, DSIT

Former pensions secretary Liz Kendall became the secretary of state at DSIT in September 2025. Kendall, who has been an MP since 2010, was previously at the helm of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) after Labour came to power in 2024.

18. Rene Haas, CEO, ARM Holdings

ARM announced in February 2022 that it had appointed 35-year semiconductor industry leader Rene Haas as chief executive, succeeding Simon Segars, who stepped down after 30 years with the company. Haas was previously president of the ARM IP Products Group since 2017, having joined the firm in 2013.

19. Zahra Bahrololoumi, president and CEO, Salesforce UK

As CEO of Salesforce in the UK and Ireland, Zahra Bahrololoumi is responsible for the workforce in these regions across all industries and functions, and is particularly focused on ensuring its customers are ready for digital transformation. She sits on several boards, including for Seeing Is Believing Coventry Place, Movement to Work and Cancer Research UK Corporate Partnerships, and is an independent non-executive director on the TSB board. In 2023, she was awarded a CBE for services to the information technology sector.

20. Ian Chapman, CEO, UK Research and Innovation

Ian Chapman joined UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) as CEO in August 2025, following 21 years at the UK Atomic Energy Authority. In his role at UKRI, Chapman leads the organisation and its backing of researchers and innovators. He is also a fellow of the Institute for Physics.

21. Emran Mian, permanent secretary, DSIT

Previously DSIT’s director general for digital technologies and telecoms, Emran Mian became the department’s permanent secretary in 2025. The career civil servant has held several senior roles in government departments before moving to DSIT.

22. Helen Wylie, director general and CDIO, DWP Digital

Helen Wylie became chief digital and information officer at the department in November 2024, after spending eight years as part of its digital team in various roles. She has a longstanding career in the sector, having worked in a variety of technology and digital delivery roles in organisations including the Bank of England, Experian and TNT Post Group. 

23. Jade Leung, AI adviser to the prime minister

Jade Leung is the prime minister’s AI adviser and the CTO of the AI Security Institute, where she oversees evaluations for frontier AI models. Before joining the government, Leung worked at OpenAI. She is also a University of Oxford Rhodes Scholar, where she completed a PhD in the governing of AI.

24. Joe Baguley, chief technology officer, EMEA, Broadcom

Joe Baguley has been the CTO at Broadcom (formerly VMware) since 2011. He also sat on several advisory boards at the European Commission and was a founding member of the BCS datacentre specialist group. He also sits on TechUK’s cloud leadership board.

25. Suzanne Ashman, managing partner, Sovereign AI Fund

Technology investor Suzanne Ashman joined Sovereign AI in May 2026, where she leads the £500m fund, identifying AI companies with growth potential. She is also a former general partner at LocalGlobe and Latitude.

26. Anne-Marie Imafidon, CEO, Stemettes; women in tech envoy, DSIT

Anne-Marie Imafidon is CEO, founder and head stemette at social enterprise Stemettes, which aims to encourage young women to choose careers in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). She has become a high-profile advocate and campaigner, taking part in racing driver Lewis Hamilton’s commission to encourage a more diverse workforce in engineering, and appeared on the Channel 4 show Countdown while regular mathematician Rachel Riley was on maternity leave. Imafidon was voted the most influential woman in UK technology in 2020.

27. Lila Ibrahim, chief operating officer, Google DeepMind

In her role as DeepMind’s chief operating officer (COO), Lila Ibrahim oversees the business operations of the company and its external engagement. With a tech career spanning decades, prior to joining Google DeepMind in 2018, she held several high-profile leadership roles in the industry.

28. Mustafa Suleyman, CEO, Microsoft AI

Mustafa Suleyman was announced as Microsoft’s head of AI in March last year. The newly created Microsoft AI will focus on advancing the Copilot family of generative AI assistants and other consumer AI products and research at Microsoft. Prior to joining Microsoft, Suleyman co-founded Google DeepMind, as well as another AI company, Inflection AI.

29. Sarah Cardell, CEO, Competition and Markets Authority

Sarah Cardell was appointed the CEO of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in December 2022, but held the role as an interim from July 2022. Before being named CEO, Cardell was general counsel at the authority for eight years.

30. Tom Adeyoola, executive chair, Innovate UK

Technology entrepreneur Tom Adeyoola became Innovate UK’s new executive chair and CEO in April 2025. He also serves on the steering board of The Startup Coalition, advocating for high-growth tech businesses across the UK.

31. Charlene Hunter, CEO and founder, Coding Black Females

Charlene Hunter founded Coding Black Females in 2017 to help black female software developers meet each other and network. Alongside her work at Coding Black Females, Hunter is a software developer. She is an advisory board industry representative in the University of Essex Online’s computing department, technical director at SAM Software Solutions, and technical director at full-stack and front-end training organisation Black CodHer Bootcamp.

32. Alan Carson, CTO and co-founder, Cloudsmith

Alan Carson founded Cloudsmith in 2016 together with co-founder Lee Skillen. The Belfast-based cloud-native universal artifact management company has grown significantly in the past few years. The company recently announced $72m series C financing to continue further growth.

33. Darren Jones, chief secretary to the prime minister, HM Government

Darren Jones was appointed as prime minister Keir Starmer’s chief secretary in September 2025. He first got involved in politics during the 2010 general election, when he stood as a Labour candidate. He was previously the chair of Labour Digital.

34. Geoff Huggins, digital director, Scottish Government

Geoff Huggins was appointed to lead the digital team in the Scottish Government in July 2021, succeeding Colin Cook. He has held a number of senior digital government roles in Scotland, including director, digital third sector transformation, director of NDS Scotland – a directorate of NHS Education for Scotland – and director of health and social care integration.

35. Ian Hogarth, chair, AI Safety Institute

Tech entrepreneur Ian Hogarth was appointed chair of the AI Safety Institute in June 2023, reporting directly to the prime minister and the technology secretary. The organisation is focused on advancing AI safety. He also led the government’s AI Foundation Model Taskforce.

36. Nicola Hodson, chair for UK&I, IBM; TechUK deputy president

Nicola Hodson joined IBM in January 2023 as its UK and Ireland CEO. Before joining IBM, Hodson spent 14 years at Microsoft in various roles, most recently as vice-president of global sales, marketing and operations for field transformation. She is also the deputy president of TechUK.

37. Anne Keast-Butler, director, GCHQ

Anne Keast-Butler joined GCHQ as its director in May 2023, becoming the first woman to lead the organisation, succeeding Jeremy Fleming. Prior to joining GCHQ, Keast-Butler served as the MI5 deputy director-general and has a long history as an intelligence expert. In her role at MI5, Keast-Butler led on MI5’s operational, investigative and protective security work, including the agency’s response to Russia’s war on Ukraine. She has also previously spent time seconded to GCHQ as head of counter-terrorism and serious organised crime.

38. Dave Smith, national technology adviser, DSIT

Dave Smith is the government’s national technology adviser, a role he took on in April 2024 after former adviser Patrick Vallance stood down from the position. In his role, Smith advises the department on how to best build on the country’s technology strengths and champion the UK’s tech industries.  

39. Sarah Winmill, BCS president; digital function leader, Royal Navy

Sarah Winmill was appointed BCS president, taking over from Daljit Rehal, in March 2026, after holding the position of deputy president the year prior. She is also the digital functional leader for the Royal Navy at the Ministry of Defence, where she has spent the last six years of her career. Prior to this, she worked in various technology roles in the British Transport Police.

40. Matt Clifford, chair, Advanced Research and Invention Agency

Matt Clifford is the chair of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency, which was set up by the UK government in February 2021 to support high-risk research that has the potential to make a high impact on society. Clifford is also the co-founder and CEO of Entrepreneur First, a pre-seed investor in deep technology startups.

41. Wendy Hall, Regius Professor of computer science, University of Southampton; non-executive director and advisor across government and industry

Wendy Hall holds several positions at the University of Southampton, including professor of computer science and associate vice-president (international engagement), and is an executive director of the university’s Web Science Institute. As well as having been a member of the UK prime minister’s Council for Science and Technology, Hall was co-chair of the UK government’s 2017 AI review, and was subsequently announced by the government as the first skills champion for AI in the UK

42. Allison Kirkby, CEO, BT Group

Allison Kirkby joined BT Group as CEO in February 2024, succeeding Philip Jansen. Kirkby, who is the first woman to hold the job of BT CEO, came to BT from Swedish telecoms provider Telia, where she also served as CEO. She has been on the board of BT Group since 2019 as a non-executive director

43. Ann O’Neill, co-founder and CEO, Adora Digital Health

Ann O’Neill founded digital health platform Adora in 2021. The platform and app are designed to support women navigating peri-menopause and menopause, and combine AI-driven personalised guidance with direct access to healthcare professionals, offering support and education to alleviate symptoms and enhance well-being. She is also a member of the McKinsey Digital Health Global CEO Group, where she is committed to redressing the healthcare imbalance that disadvantages women and diverse communities both in life and in the workplace.

44. Blaise Metreweli, chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6)

Blaise Metreweli is a career civil servant, having joined the Secret Intelligence Service in 1999. She spent most of her career in operational roles in Europe and the Middle East before becoming the director general, technology and innovation. In 2025, she became the Secret Intelligence Service’s 18th chief, known as “C”, taking over from Richard Moore. She is MI6’s first female chief.

45. Katie Prescott, technology business editor, The Times

The Times’ technology business editor Katie Prescott reports on technology changes across the world. She also co-hosts the Times Tech podcast, which regularly sees high-profile guests reflecting on tech.

46. Theo Blackwell, chief digital officer to the Mayor of London

Theo Blackwell was appointed London’s first chief digital officer in August 2017. Prior to this, Blackwell spent 15 years as a councillor in the London Borough of Camden, where he led the implementation of an ambitious digital strategy for the borough.

47. Brent Hoberman, entrepreneur; chair of Founders Factory and Founders Forum

Serial entrepreneur Brent Hoberman is the chairman and co-founder of Founders Factory, a London-based accelerator and incubator. He is also a non-executive director and co-founder of Made.com, and has sat on the board of several companies, including EasyCar and Shazam. In 1998, he co-founded Lastminute.com together with Martha Lane Fox.         

48. Carlos Selonke, CIO, Revolut

Carlos Selonke joined Revolut as CIO in September 2021, following a long career in the financial services industry, most recently at Santander, both in the UK and the US. At Revolut, he is responsible for the bank’s technology and banking operations, including payments.

49. Yvonne Gallagher, digital director, National Audit Office

The National Audit Office’s (NAO) digital transformation expert joined the auditor in 2013, where she leads its digital insights team. Before joining the NAO, Yvonne Gallagher held several high-profile technology roles, including as the CIO of Affinity Sutton and the Ministry of Justice.

50. Paul Hardy, EMEA innovation officer, ServiceNow

Paul Hardy became the EMEA innovation officer at ServiceNow in June 2024. He has more than 25 years in the technology industry under his belt, and before joining ServiceNow, he worked at Informa for more than a decade.

Judging the UKtech50

The judging panel was chosen to represent different perspectives in IT, so each individual acted both as an impartial and expert judge, as well as an advocate for their area of interest. The judges were:

• Laura Meyer, investor, Angel Academe; former CIO
• James Woodward, director of communications, BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT
• David Savage, group technology evangelist, Harvey Nash
• Matthew Evans, chief operating officer and director of markets, TechUK
• Roy Illsley, chief analyst, Omdia 

Our judging panel chose the top 50 candidates based on the following criteria: 

• Influence: What authority or ability does the person have – either through their personal position or the role they hold – to personally influence the development of UK technology, or to influence others in positions of authority?
• Achievements: What has the person achieved in the past 12 months to help the development of UK technology?
• Profile: Is the person recognised as a role model for aspiring leaders? How widely are they acknowledged by their peers as an authority and influence on UK tech?
• Leadership: Does the person demonstrate the skills and experience necessary to be seen as a leader in the development of the tech community in the UK? Do they have a leadership role and does that help them develop the role of technology in the UK?
• Potential: How likely is it that the person will have a significant impact on UK tech in the next 12 months? Will their authority and responsibility grow?