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 7 November.

Deadline for entries is 6 July – for all the details of how to submit your nomination and for more information about the ceremony, visit our web site at: www.computing.co.uk/awards

John Suffolk

John was appointed Her Majesty’s government chief information officer (CIO) on 5 June 2006. Prior to this he was 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.

Peter Scargill

Peter is the national IT chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), the UK’s largest business organisation, representing more than 185,000 member companies and 1.25 million people. The federation promotes and protects the interests of the self-employed and owners of small firms.

John Higgins

John has been director general of Intellect, the trade association for the UK hi-tech industry, since its launch in May 2002. He previously fulfilled the same role at the CSSA. John is an executive member of many industry taskforce teams, including the Intellect/OGC Senior IT Forum and the Intellect/NHS Supplier Consultation Group.

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 (Tif). 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.

Jeremy Beale

Jeremy is responsible for e-business policy and member best-practice at the CBI. He is a member of the Broadband Stakeholder Group Executive, the Policy Advisory Board of Nominet, which is responsible for UK internet country-code allocations, and the Board of tScheme, the UK Digital Certificates Authority.

Ashley Braganza

Ashley is a senior lecturer in the innovation and process management community at Cranfield School of Management. He directs Nexus – The Knowledge Exchange, the IT Directors’ Forum and Achieving Strategy through Business Process Change, and advises several organisations in the areas of process, change and knowledge management.

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 is chief executive of investment and advisory firm Ariadne Capital. She founded First Tuesday, the global network of entrepreneurs credited for igniting the internet generation in Europe. Ariadne Capital was an advisor to Skype, and Julie also advises firms such as Carphone Warehouse, Morse, BT and a portfolio of startups.

Mark Kobayashi-Hillary

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

Julie Feest

Julie Feest joined e-Skills UK in May 2003 and is now the sector skills body’s IT sector engagement manager. Previously Julie was the marketing alliance manager for HP’s services division. At e-Skills UK Julie works with employers of IT professionals to raise awareness of the importance of technology skills and to support professional development for the workforce.

Nick Kirkland

Nick is managing director of IT leaders’ user group CIO Connect. Former positions included group vice president at Gartner Executive Programmes, information services director of Penguin Books, and head of IT in the UK for Sony. He is a member of the IoD and the Institute for the Management of Information Systems.

Rose Crozier

Rose is head of information services in Belfast City Council, and was elected president of local authority user group Socitm in April 2007. Rose holds an MSc in information systems management and hopes this year to complete her PhD researching performance improvement through effective deployment of technology.