Elon Musk tops list of channel's top 10 tech heroes

Man behind SpaceX and Tesla brands was selected by a fifth of respondents in the CRN 2018 A-list as their favourite tech figurehead

Elon Musk is the tech figurehead most admired by top channel bosses, if the responses in this year's CRN A-list are anything to go by.

Out today, the CRN A-list 2018 questioned 120 top reseller, distribution and vendor bosses on a range of topics, including who their tech hero is.

Respondents included Softcat's Martin Hellawell, Westcoast founder Joe Hemani, UKFast's Lawrence Jones, Canadian cybersecurity entrepreneur Robert Herjavec and Insight's Emma de Sousa.

Musk polled nearly twice as many as the next most feted leader, with one in five A-listers picking out the man behind the SpaceX and Tesla brands as their tech idol.

The top 10 was as follows:

1) Elon Musk (23)

2) Steve Jobs (10)

3) Jeff Bezos (5)

4=) Sheryl Sandberg (4)

4=) Michael Dell (4)

4=) Tim Berners-Lee (4)

7) Martin Hellawell (3)

8=) Charles Babbage (2)

8=) Meg Whitman (2)

8=) Sir Richard Branson (2)

8=) John Tu (2)

8=) Alan Turing (2)

8=) Andrew Grove (2)

A-listers were also asked which three famous people from history they would like to invite to a dinner party. Political leaders featured highly on the wishlist, with wartime PM Sir Winston Churchill stamping his authority on the question with 23 nominations.

Nelson Mandela got 15 mentions, while Margaret Thatcher also featured prominently, with 10 A-list personalities wanting to chat over grilled Dover sole (reportedly her favourite dish). Steve Jobs bagged 11 votes, ahead of Albert Einstein (8), Henry V111 (7), Jesus (7), Robin Williams (7), Alan Turing (7), George Best (6), Neil Armstrong (6) and Muhammed Ali (5).

The idea behind the A-list is to give some of the channel's top names a chance to show their playful side, although as ever we also threw in some more sober, business-related questions too.

The most common response we got when emailing the questions this year was "oh, these are tougher than last year", and we hope you enjoy reading some of our A-listers' thoughtful and though-provoking answers.

This is not a definitive list. The CRN A-list is by invitation only and selected by the editorial team, and there will be some big hitters that were not approached, accidentally or through ignorance. But if you know of anyone you feel we may have overlooked, please get in touch and we can aim to rectify it next year.

Click here to view all the profiles.