Leaders from Darktrace, Wayve and the Raspberry Pi Foundation were among the UK tech industry figures who were granted honours at the start of the year. 

The annual recognition of those who made exceptional contributions to various fields included over a dozen people from Britain’s tech industry, including Baroness Poppy Gustafsson, the co-founder of cybersecurity group Darktrace who was appointed as investment minister late last year. 

Gustafsson left Darktrace in September of 2024 ahead of her joining Keir Starmer’s cabinet. The acquisition and delisting from the London Stock Exchange of the cybersecurity firm by private equity group Thoma Bravo was completed in October. 

Also honoured was John Lazar, currently the president of the Royal Academy of Engineering and chairman of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a charity promoting the study of computer science the commercial subsidiary of which was publicly floated last June. 

The list also included Alex Kendall, the co-founder and CEO of autonomous driving software group Wayve which last year raised over $1bn in a single funding round last May, a massive boost for the sector. 

In a further sign of Britain’s support for the sector, Jessica Uguccioni, the deputy head of the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles within the Department for Transport received an honour for her services to the regulation of self-driving cars. 

The Automated Vehicles Act received Royal Assent last May, outlining among other things the safety requirements for the technology, a vital step for rolling out self-driving vehicles. 

The semiconductor and quantum computing industries also received a nod, with Dr Jalal Bagherli, co-chair of the Semiconductor Advisory Panel, Douglas Paul, professor of semiconductor devices at the James Watt School of Engineering and Janet Collyer, chair of Quantum Dice being honoured. 

Other UK tech figures named in the list include: 

Michael Lewis – CEO, Uniper Energy 

Catherine Torre – Former CEO, British Patient Capital 

Mayank Prakash – President, British Computer Society 

Donald Robert – Chair, London Stock Exchange Group 

Tom Rodden – Former chief scientific adviser to the DCMS 

David Louis Taylor – CEO, British Business Bank 

Carl Cavers – Founder, Sumo Group 

Margot Cooper – Founder and president, Limbs and Things 

Sue Daley – Director of tech and innovation, techUK 

Julian David – CEO, techUK 

Dalim Basu – Honourary chair and volunteer, British Computer Society 

Anna Brailsford – CEO, Code First Girls 

Madeline Howard – Manager, Sage UK 

Elizabeth Kerr – Former director, UK Space 

Philip Rose – Founder, SciTech North West England 

Ian Stevenson – Founder and CEO, Cyacomb 

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