Future 50 Awards winners announced: the most innovative people in tech today

The winners of the Future 50 Awards 2021 are now in

Future 50
(Image credit: Future)

The Future 50 Awards is a celebration of 50 key people who are driving innovation in consumer technology today, selected by a panel of Future Publishing's tech journalists.

Including content creators, CEOs, product managers and others, the Future 50 consists of innovators who are making the world a better place for everyone through the use of technology. And right here are this year's winners.

View all Future 50 winners now

This list isn't ranked as every person here is unique in their contribution to the consumer tech industry – instead we intend it to be viewed as an overview of where tech innovation is coming from today.

The winners were chosen by a combined panel of judges drawn from Future's consumer technology titles, including T3, Tom's Guide and TechRadar.

The criteria for inclusion consisted of the following:

1) Evidence of innovation in the field of consumer technology

2) Evidence of impact and tangible results

3) Can be demonstrated to have inspired admiration from consumers and peers

Winners this year range from Bozoma Saint John, the Chief Marketing Officer of Neflix, to Carmela Troncoso, Assistant professor, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, who did such great work in making passive contact tracing a reality.

Tesla Motors CES Elon Musk also makes the cut thanks to his work in the development of electric cars and cryptocurrency, while Phil Spencer, Executive Vice President of Gaming, Microsoft, is celebrated thanks to his pioneering work in cloud-based gaming experiences.

There are plenty more innovators celebrated, too – to see the full list of the Future 50 winners head on over to the Future Tech Awards 2021 official website.

Paul Douglas
Global Digital Editorial Strategy Director, Future

Paul Douglas is Global Digital Editorial Strategy Director at Future and has worked in publishing for over 25 years. He worked in print for over 10 years on various computing titles including .net magazine and the Official Windows Magazine before moving to TechRadar.com in 2008, eventually becoming Global Editor-in-Chief for the brand, overseeing teams in the US, UK and Australia. Following that, Paul has been Global Editor-in-Chief of BikeRadar and T3 (not at the same time) and later Content Director working on T3, TechRadar and Tom's Guide. In 2021, Paul also worked on the launches of FitandWell.com and PetsRadar.