This article is more than 1 year old

No wind-up: Second New Year's honour for Baylis music box

Hoberman and former Dragons' Den star Caan also awarded medals

Former co-founder of Lastminute.com Brent Hoberman and inventor of the wind-up radio Trevor Baylis were two names in just a handful of science and tech folk to be handed gongs in the 2015 New Year's honours list.

Both were awarded Commander of the Order of the British Empire, the second shiny medal for Baylis after receiving an OBE in 1997 for his services to intellectual property through his Baygen wind-up radio.

As for Hoberman, since selling Lastminute in 2005, he co-founded furniture site Made.com and sits on the boards of TalkTalk and music start-up Shazam. The gong was for services to entrepreneurship.

One other familiar name to be awarded a CBE was James Caan, formerly of Dragons' Den fame. Caan is founder of the Start Up Loans Company and was awarded the gong for services to entrepreneurship.

However, of the 1,149 awards, only a small number will have even peripheral interest for El Reg readers.

IBM software engineer Amanda Elizabeth Chessell was one of just a few actual technology bods to be awarded an OBE, this time for services to engineering.

Elsewhere, a number of Whitehall bureaucrats were handed gongs for their contribution to the tech industry, including Lynne Killpatrick, head of Video Games (eh?) at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. ®

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like