I was delighted to make it into Tyto PR‘s annual Tyto Tech 500 list of #tech influencers once again, squeezing into 51st place between Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis and Last Minute co-founder Brent Hoberman. Not bad company to keep I’d say.

Indeed, the number of journalists placed in the Tech 500 ranking this year has risen by 38% since 2021 and we now make up 198 of the 500 most influential individuals in the list.

The Tech 500 identifies the most influential individuals in the technology sector across the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Sweden.

The pan-European Tech 500 reveals that influential figures predominantly come from four major tech sectors: General Tech, EnterpriseTech, FinTech, and ConsumerTech. This collectively constitutes over half (58%) of the total influencers ranked in the Tyto Tech 500 and mirrors the previous year, where these sectors similarly commanded the top positions.

However, two sectors have demonstrated remarkable growth in influence in recent years: SpaceTech and Cybersecurity. In two years, the number of influencers related to SpaceTech has risen by 350% and Cybersecurity by 43%.

Here are the top 10 influencers in the UK for 2023:

1.       Richard Branson – Founder, Virgin  

2.       George Freeman – UK Minister of State for Science, Research, Technology and Innovation 

3.       Alok Sharma – President, COP26  

4.       Jonathan Brearley – CEO, Ofgem 

5.       Patrick Vallance – Non-Executive Director, ARIA 

6.       Helen Dickinson – CEO, British Retail Consortium 

7.       Sarah Butler – Retail Correspondent, The Guardian 

8.       Mark Carney – Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance, United Nations  

9.       John Edwards – Information Commissioner, Information Commissioner’s Office  

10.   Dan Milmo – Global Technology Editor, The Guardian