Industry figureheads awarded knighthoods and MBEs in New Year Honours list

BT, IBM and WANdiscoexecs receive recognition for services to telecoms, education and IT

Industry figureheads from the UK's IT sector have received recognition for their services to IT, telecoms and education in the New Year Honours list.

BT's former chairman, Jan Petrus du Plessis, received a knighthood in the New Year Honours list for his services to telecoms and business

Du Plessis retired from the telecoms giant in March 2021 after initially joining the business in June 2017.

He was awarded a Knights Bachelor in recognition of his achievements in reorientating the BT business and making "fundamental investments that are critical to the future success of the UK economy".

These included a £15bn commitment to expand the UK's fibre infrastructure to 25 million households as well as investment in 5G networks.

The honours also mentions how du Plessis spearheaded the transformation of BT's customer service, with Openreach and the BT brand now hitting "all-time high" customer satisfaction scores.

Du Plessis navigated BT through an accountancy scandal involving its Italian business which wiped more than £7bn from the telecom giant's value in 2017 and prompted a restructure of the business which led to 4,000 job cuts.

"As the chair of a number of FTSE companies over more than 17 years, he has made a wide contribution to business. Through Chair Mentors International and the Mentoring Foundation, he has provided advice and counsel to numerous chairs and CEOs of public companies and to senior female business leaders," the honours read.

Other IT figureheads to receive recognition in this year's Honours list were from IBM and software company WANdisco.

IBM UK's leader of early professional programmes, Jennifer Taylor, received an MBE for her services to education, including her work as chair of digital and technology solutions level 6 apprenticeship trailblazer.

Meanwhile and WANdisco's CEO and co-founder David Richards and wife Jane Richards received MBEs for services to the IT sector and to young people during the Covid-19 pandemic through The David and Jane Richards Family Foundation.