The entries are already coming in for this year’s Computing Awards for Excellence ­ and we can now announce the prestigious line-up of judges who will decide the winners.

The awards are recognised as the Oscars of the IT industry. This year the prizes will be handed out at the awards ceremony at Battersea Park Events Arena in London on 5 November.

Deadline for entries is 18 July ­ for all the details of how to submit your nomination and for more information about the ceremony, visit : www.computing.co.uk/awards.

John Suffolk

John was appointed Her Majesty’s government chief information officer (CIO) in June 2006, having previously been director general of criminal justice IT. John leads the work of the CIO Council in delivering the government’s strategy for the transformation of public services enabled by technology. He also provides leadership to the IT profession across the public sector.

Jeremy Beale

Jeremy is responsible for e-business policy and member best-practice at the CBI,
bringing together corporate users and providers of IT to identify e-business best
practice and policy on internet, telecoms and information security issues. He is responsible for liaising with the CBI’s counterparts internationally. Prior to joining the CBI, Jeremy was a media analyst and e-commerce consultant in Sydney at ABN AMRO, the investment bank.

Ashley Braganza

Ashley Braganza is professor of organisational transformation at Brunel Business School, with responsibility for executive development programmes. His research includes the role of chief executives in large-scale transformation programmes, strategic integration, new organisational forms and the creation of technology-based business models. Prior to joining Brunel Business School, Ashley worked at the Cranfield School of Management.

Nick Kirkland

Nick is chief executive of the leading CIO networking company, CIO Connect, which runs the UK’s premier CIO network and similar networks in Germany, Ireland and Hong Kong. Nick’s previous roles include group vice president at Gartner, information services director at Penguin Books, and general manager of IT for Sony UK. He is a member of the Institute of Directors and the Institute for the Management of Information Systems.

Mark Kobayashi-Hillary

Mark is a board member of the National Outsourcing Association and a founding member of the BCS working party on offshoring. He is a member of Pitcom, the
Parliamentary IT Committee, and a visiting lecturer on the MBA programme at London South Bank University. He is author of the book Outsourcing to India: The Offshore Advantage and co- author of Global Services: Moving to a Level Playing Field.

Sharm Manwani

Sharm is associate professor at Henley Management College, where he is
researching, mentoring, and lecturing in information management. He held European IT director positions at Diageo and Electrolux while obtaining his MBA and Doctorate at Henley, and joined the faculty in 2000. Sharm consults with major firms on strategy, programme management and IT capability development.

Julie Meyer

Julie Meyer is chief executive of investment and advisory firm Ariadne Capital. She is
well-known for founding First Tuesday, the global network of entrepreneurs which many credit for igniting the internet generation in Europe. Ariadne Capital was an advisor to Skype, and Julie advises companies such as Carphone Warehouse, Morse and BT. Named a ”Global Leader of Tomorrow” by the World Economic Forum and one of the top 30 most powerful women in Europe according to the Wall Street Journal.

Jim Norton

Jim Norton is the senior policy advisor for e-business and e-government for the
Institute of Directors, an external member of the Board of the Parliamentary Office of Science & Technology, and elected council member of the Parliamentary IT Committee. He also holds a number of non-executive directorships, is a commissioner in the IPPR Commission on National Security in the 21st Century and a board member and trustee of the Foundation for Information Policy Research.

Denise Plumpton

Since January 2005 Denise has been director of information at the Highways Agency. She is a former chairwoman of blue-chip IT user group The Corporate IT Forum. From 1989 to 1999 she was commercial manager and IT director at Powergen, followed by four years as IT director of TNT, and a year as IT director at UK mobile phone manufacturer Sendo.

Peter Scargill

Peter is the national IT chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), the UK’s leading business organisation, representing more than 210,000 member companies and 1.3 million people. The federation promotes and protects the interests of the self-employed and owners of small firms, while also lobbying Whitehall on issues affecting small businesses.

Richard Steel

Richard is chief information officer at the London Borough of Newham, and president of local authority user group Socitm. He started his IT career in merchant banking, and became an assistant director of Morgan Grenfell (now Deutsche Bank). He moved to Newham Council in 1989, where he undertook a number of IT management roles before becoming CIO. Richard is a member of Newham’s strategic management board, and is a member of the Public Sector Infrastructure Group, the Government Connect Stakeholder Board, and the Identity & Passport Service Local Government Advisory Board.

Charles Ward

Charles is chief operating officer of IT trade association Intellect, where he is responsible for sales, marketing and delivery of Intellect’s services to members of the UK’s technology trade association. He joined Intellect from Compaq (previously Digital) where he was European head of marketing for the customer services division. Prior to joining Digital in 1989, Charles held a variety of marketing and sales roles in De La Rue Payment Systems, Johnson & Johnson and 3M UK.