Last year's position : Not Placed

It is perhaps only right that the man at the helm of Europe's largest software vendor finds himself in this list. But until quite recently the individual synonymous with SAP was co-founder Hasso Plattner, who last year made it at 46. Now Kagermann, with over 20 years at the company and a background in physics and mathematics, has his chance to shine.

Key concerns remain spending on truly enterprise class products that don't come cheap, Oracle and working down the food chain to SMEs as the potential rival Microsoft starts working its way up.