4. Paul Coby

In August 2016, Coby was promoted to be John Lewis' first CIO, having been IT director at the retail organisation for over four years. He also holds a position as chair of SITA, the air transport telecommunications and IT solutions firm. He was CIO of British Airways for eight years, where he was responsible for all IT operations and technology strategy.

"I'm passionate about technology, so I make sure that I do at least a monthly ‘deep dive' on new areas of technology with some of John Lewis's key technologists. You should be really passionate and interested in technology because it's about understanding how it all works," he told Computing recently.