Day Britain’s tech darlings replaced the City’s old guard
Gongs for robotics genius, video games gurus and digital pioneers
TECH pioneers stole the spotlight in the new Year Honours with a series of gongs in recognition of Britain’s world-leading firms.
The awards handed out to those who have championed digital innovation overshadowed those given to the old guard in banking and finance.
Those honoured included Dr Demis Hassabis, founder of Deepmind – an artificial intelligence firm bought by Google – as well as TechUK president Jacqueline De Rojas, video games industry leader Dr Richard Wilson and Ron Kalifa, who led digital payments firm Worldpay.
City grandees still scooped top honours, however, with Bank of England court chief anthony Habgood given a knighthood.
Hassabis, chief executive of Deepmind, was handed a CBE for services to science and technology. The Cambridge University graduate is on a mission to develop computers that can think like humans.
He set up Deepmind in 2010 and Google bought it for £400m three years later. it now employs about 400 people
Hassabis, 41, lives in London with his wife and two sons.
His work is likely to become even more important to Google as it ramps up competition with other technology giants over artificial intelligence.
TechUK president de Rojas was awarded a CBE for services to international trade and technology. The 55-year-old has decades of experience at software companies and sits on the board of property website Rightmove and Channel Tunnel engineering firm Costain Group.
She has also campaigned to encourage more women to join male-dominated tech companies. Worldpay’s Kalifa, 56, formerly its chief executive and now deputy chairman, was given an OBE for services to financial services and technology.
His firm has more than 5,500 staff and a market capitalisation of £6bn.
it struck a controversial £9.3bn deal this year to merge with US rival Vantiv, with the new firm set to have a dual listing in London and new York. Kalifa promised that most job losses will fall on the US and that UK centres in London, Cambridge, Manchester and Gateshead will be kept.
Wilson, 49, chief executive of trade body The independent Game Developers’ association, was given an OBE for service to the video game industry.
He took the role in 2008 and campaigned for tax relief schemes to be handed to the industry.