JP Rangaswami sets business and IT agenda

BT Design managing director of innovation and strategy, JP Rangaswami, has been ranked 11th in a list of the fifty most influential people in the worldwide technology and IT industries.

The Agenda Setters rankings are produced by silicon.com - a website that brings business and IT professionals the latest news, comment and analysis.

In producing its list, silicon.com says it assesses business leaders, chief executives, chief information officers, “techies”, open source gurus, security experts, visionaries, entrepreneurs and politicos.

In its assessment of JP, it states: “Previously the chief information officer (CIO) of an investment bank, JP Rangaswami is now managing director of innovation and strategy at BT Design, the telco’s group IT design and delivery unit, which works with BT Operate to bring software products to customers over BT’s 21st century network (21CN) next-generation network.

“But it’s the work outside of his day job which propelled this maverick up the Agenda Setters rankings - from 48 last year to 11 this year.

“He is an outspoken advocate of open source and emerging web 2.0 technologies on his Confused of Calcutta blog - as well as an investor in start-ups and a sought-after authority on the international tech industry.

“One Agenda Setters judge said of Rangaswami: ‘[He is] that rare phenomenon, the entrepreneurial CIO who is breaking the mould by simultaneously innovating the mega and the small enterprise in the commercial space while provoking the wider world through his blog.’

“Watch out for his agenda setting in the educational realm too - he has said he may one day set up a school from scratch.”

The Agenda Setters list is headed by worldwide web inventor Tim Berners-Lee.