Sir Martin Sorrell, head of the advertising agency WPP, and the inventor James Dyson have been jointly named “most impressive business person” of the year by their peers.
According to the “Captains of Industry” report by Ipsos Mori both candidates have the backing of 14 per cent of respondents.
They jointly steal the top spot from Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson.
No woman has won the title since the first "Captains of Industry" report in 1981.
Sir Martin Sorrel has joined WPP in 1986 as a director becoming the group CEO in the same year.It is now one of the world’s leading communication and advertising companies with a revenue of £11.5 billion as of December 2014.
British inventor and founder of the Dyson Company, James Dyson is known for inventing the word’s first bagless vacuum cleaner. Sir Dyson is the 10th richest person in the UK with a fortune estimated at $4.7 billion according to Forbes estimates.
The same survey found Britain’s role within Europe is the most important issues facing the nation today, at 61 per cent it was way ahead of immigration at 21 per cent and terrorism at 15 per cent.
John Lewis was named the most admired British company the second year in the row with 14 per cent, closely followed by Jaguar and British Airways both mentioned by 10 per cent of the respondents.
The report is based on the views of a hundred top directors from UK’s largest companies, approximately half of whom are in the FTSE 350. Typically 80 per cent of respondents are chairmen, chief executives and managing directors
