Tech executives receive honours

Several luminaries in the computer industry have received honours from the queen in the 2002 New Year's Honours List, including game designer Jez San, microchip executive Robin Saxby and Herman Hauser, who co-founded Acorn Computers.

San founded Argonaut Games while still a teenager. The company has created a number of popular games, including Starfox for the Super Nintendo and, more recently, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Argonaut also designed a chip that went into the original, hugely successful, Game Boy. He received an OBE.

Saxby is executive chairman of ARM, which designs processor cores used in a wide variety of portable digital devices, including most mobile phones. He received a KBE.

Hauser's Acorn Computers sold over a million BBC Microcomputers between 1981 and 1986. He is now a venture capitalist and has advised the UK government on technology funding. Hauser, who is Austrian, was one of the entrepreneurs who kicked off the tech boom in the Cambridge area. He received an honourary CBE.

Among the honours recipients was also Terence Leahy, chief executive of Tesco, for services to food retailing. In recent months Tesco has built itself into one of the most successful online retailers in any category, drawing comparisons with the likes of Amazon.com. Tesco is also one of the few food retailers anywhere that has managed to create a successful business on the Internet.

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