Sir James Dyson and Sir Martin Sorrell voted joint "most impressive business person" by their peers

Sir James Dyson and Sir Martin Sorrell are the joint most impressive business people in Britain at the moment, according to the most senior figures in top UK companies.

In a survey of more than 100 senior leaders of the UK’s top 500 companies, Ipsos’s Captains of Industry, both Knights of the Realm had the backing of 14% of respondents.

Previous winners of the title of recent years include Sir Richard Branson, Justin King, and Sir Terry Leahy.

The same survey finds John Lewis holds on to its title as the company most admired by senior business figures (14%), ahead of Jaguar and British Airways (both mentioned by 10%).

Commenting on the findings, Ben Page, Chief Executive of Ipsos, said:

“Our annual poll of Britain’s business leaders shows that John Lewis remains the UK’s most admired business by its peers, but we have two new business leaders tied as the most impressive – Sir Martin Sorrell of WPP and Sir James Dyson, the eponymous inventor, both new entrants. Getting chosen by their peers for what they have achieved is no small compliment!” 

Technical note

Respondents are executive board-level directors and chairmen. Companies are from the top 500 industrials by turnover and the top 100 financial companies by capital employed. A total of 102 respondents took part with interviews conducted from September to December 2015. 97 interviews were conducted face-to-face and 5 by telephone.