Who is the current face of IT?

Who is the current face of IT?

Who is the current face of IT? Over the last few years, hockey fans have debated between Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin as the current face of NHL. In the tech world, many of us have that same debate, only with a bigger pool of candidates. Find out who has a case to be the poster boy of IT.

by Rafael Ruffolo, ComputerWorld Canada

Steve Ballmer

The very excitable Microsoft CEO is known in tech circles for his lively and hyperactive press conferences, but he has failed to gain any street cred with the average consumer. This could all change if he started featuring himself in those “to the cloud” television commercials that have been bombarding airwaves. Of course, that might also backfire and put him the running for “most hated IT exec.”

Bill Gates

While Gates has been out of the CEO game for years now, his perennial place atop the Forbes’ “richest people” list and his many charitable donations has kept him the public spotlight. Also during his retirement, Gates teamed up with Jerry Seinfeld in an annoying series of overly long ads about nothing. Still, if you ask 10 people on the street who they think of when they use Windows, nine and a half would say Gates.

Steve Jobs

Once referred to by Fortune Magazine as one of “Silicon Valley’s leading egomaniacs,” nobody in the tech world most represents the rise of the personal computer more than Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Outfitted in his legendary black turtleneck, every Jobs news conference is highly anticipated among consumers and tech insiders alike.

Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg Facebook’s founder has been all over the media in the last several months. He was the subject of the hit movie The Social Network, he picked up the Time Magazine Person of the Year award, and even made an appearance on Saturday Night Live to poke fun at himself. But perhaps the biggest recent achievement for the social networking mogul was getting a seat beside Obama during the aforementioned White House dinner. Not bad for a Harvard drop out.

Julian Assange

Not even Facebook’s Zuckerberg was in the media spotlight more in recent months than online activist and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. With open government and open data set to become a hot topic for public and private sector organizations around the world, Assange might have become the face of that movement.