Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group and one of the world’s best-known entrepreneurs, tops the list of Influencers for the second year in a row, closely followed by former Dragon’s Den investor, James Caan CBE. Also featuring for the second year are Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of Oxfam International and Maebh Quoirin, CEO of Foresight Factory - two leading women in business who use the platform to share thoughts on topics ranging from standing up for the people of South Sudan to the portrayal of women in advertising campaigns.
From a member perspective, the list highlights the contributors to follow for advice and insight, as well as which topics got them talking; touching on everything from politics to mental health in the workplace.
The LinkedIn Top Voices list is an annual round-up of the best contributors in the UK; those who share fascinating insights and launch high quality conversations within their networks. There are over 100,000 articles published on LinkedIn every week, by nearly three million unique writers, but ten Influencers stood out from the crowd.
For the first time, this list was curated by examining posts, comments, and video engagement in addition to articles published. New additions to this year’s list include Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever and Sarah Wood, CEO of Unruly, a leading ad tech company. The top ten Influencers of 2017 are:
- Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group
- James Caan CBE, CEO of Recruitment Guide
- Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever
- Bernard Marr, Founder and CEO of Bernard Marr & Co
- Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of Oxfam International
- Azeem Azhar, Advisory Board Member of Harvard Business Review
- Meabh Quoirin, Co-owner and CEO of Foresight Factory
- Chris Parr, Digital and Communities Editor of TES Global Limited
- Alistair Cox, Chief Executive of Hays PLC
- Sarah Wood, CEO of Unruly
Emily Spaven, LinkedIn’s UK News Editor said: “Almost 1,000 posts are being shared every minute on LinkedIn – that's hundreds of thousands of insights, ideas and anecdotes sparking new conversations every day. Our combination of data and editorial insight has helped us highlight the voices that are really making an impact, and those that are spreading their knowledge to their network and beyond.”
The top member voices list looks at the professionals on LinkedIn talking about the issues that really matter to the UK’s workforce, provoking high-quality conversation and engagement amongst members.
LinkedIn’s Top Member Voices 2017 in alphabetical order are:
- Yuval Atsmon, SVP of Globality
- Steve Blakeman, Columnist for INC Magazine
- Alexandra Galviz, Founder of Alexander Galviz
- Mark Gregory, Chief Economist of UK & Ireland at EY
- David Mattin, Global head of trends and insights at TrendWatching
- Keith McNulty, Global Director of People Analytics at McKinsey & Company
- Danielle Newnham, Founder of The Junto Network
- Theo Paphitis, Entrepreneur
- Richard Shotton, Deputy Head of Evidence at Manning Gottlieb OMD
- Carol Stewart, Executive coach at Abounding Solutions
- Cate Trotter, Head of Trends at Insider Trends
- Professor Jonathan A.J. Wilson, Professor at GSM London