Exactly why people get Honours is still beyond me. I had thought that the days of getting an honour for just doing your paid-for job had passed. I thought you had to do something beyond that, eg for charity or a superlative achievement, nowadays. But I’ll let you be the judge on who deserves it from the list of technology awards this year.
Bill Crothers, HMGovt’s Chief Procurement Officer, gets an Order of the Bath (CB) and Mike Bracken, Head of HMGovt Digital Services gets a CBE.
Jenifer Tennison, Tech Director at the Open Data Institute, gets an OBE.
Michael Tobin. CEO, TelecityGroup, gets an OBE for services to the Digital Economy. I’ve known Mike for many years and he’s been a staunch supporter of the Technology Leadership Group at the Prince’s Trust and other ‘good causes’ like Action for Children.
Joanna Shields, the CEO of Tech City and latterly at Facebook, ge
ts an OBE ‘for services to the digital industries and voluntary service to young people’.
Warren East, until recently CEO of ARM, gets a CBE. Michael Acton Smith, the founder of Mind Candy the company behind Moshi Monsters, gets an OBE. Cathy Court, Siobhan Freegard and Sally Russell, co-founders of the parental support website Netmums , get OBEs. Colette Bowe, chair of Ofcom, gets a CBE. Penny Power, founder of business-focussed social network Ecademy, gets an OBE.
Also, of personal interest, was the knighthood awarded to Ian Cheshire, CEO of Kingfisher (B&Q etc). I’ve known Ian for many years as he is a committee member of the Retail Leadership Group of the Prince’s Trust.