Last year's position : 24

Despite a performance that is virtually static on last year's, Verwaayen and his company have made real progress since 2002. There were doubts voiced about whether concentrating on BT's domestic market marks a waning influence but the logic had it that Verwaayen is setting an agenda for three main reasons: his aggressive ADSL roll out programme (driven by him personally), his communications plus IT approach and his strategy acting like a blueprint for indebted telcos around the world trying to get back on an even keel. Even the spin-off of BT's mobile arm has come to look OK with subsequent mobility initiatives and embracing of Wi-Fi. And he would tell you he's just begun.