Channel bigwigs trounced by Posh Spice in top 100 rankings

Phil Doye, Lawrence Jones and Peter Kelly among channel faces in Management Today's Top 100 Entrepreneurs

A handful of channel faces have made it into Management Today's (MT) Top 100 Entrepreneurs rankings, but none were able to top fashion designer and former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham, who took the top spot.

Softcat founder Peter Kelly appeared in eighth place on the leader board, with Kelway's chief executive Phil Doye following close behind in ninth place. The duo's wealth was estimated by MT to be £310m and £330m respectively.

The former was praised for steering his company from a mail-order software company back in the 90s to the services firm it is today, while Kelway's recent £150m deal with Atos was highlighted as a key success for Doye in the past 12 months.

UKFast's Lawrence Jones and Daisy's chief executive Matt Riley – who recently took the firm private with a duo of investors – appeared in 11th and 14th place respectively, and Phoenix Software founder Suzanne Marshall-Forsyth made the list in 85th place.

MT's calculations were based on the individuals' wealth, the percentage growth in their firms' turnover over the last five years and the percentage growth in jobs they have created over the same period.

MT said profit was not a primary consideration in its calculations.

"We do not measure profits growth as private and public companies have very different approaches to declaring profits," it said.

"Public companies try to maximise their profits to please shareholders, while private companies often keep their profits low to minimise tax liabilities. That said, we do keep a careful eye on profits and avoid companies that may be building turnover at the expense of profits."