UPDATE: The results are in. Here are this year’s reader’s choice winners. Thanks for voting!
Every year, Coins2Day selects its Businessperson of the Year. (We’ll reveal our winner along with the runners up on November 21.) But we want to open up the selection process to you, our readers.
This year, we’ve asked a select group of Coins2Day staffers and contributors to nominate their MVPs within their respective beats. In today’s installment, Coins2Day tech writer JP Mangalindan offers his selection of top performers in tech for 2013. Cast your vote below for this year’s reader’s choice picks.
Jack Dorsey – CEO of Square, chairman of Twitter
If any startup chief executive should be lauded this year, it’s Dorsey. His first successful brainchild, Twitter (TWTR), went public this November and finished its first day of trading with a market capitalization of around $25 billion, seven years after the St. Louis native sketched out the fanciful idea for a social network pushing pithy, real-time status updates. (Twitter has since altered the way millions of people communicate and consume information.) And his other venture, the credit card-processing Square, continues to rapidly grow, with a reported projection of nearly $1 billion in revenues next year — likely why Square may be eyeing an IPO in 2014, as well.
Cindy Holland – Vice president of original series, Netflix
For Netflix (NFLX), this year has been about the release of compelling original content. The video-streaming service’s 40 million-plus userbase have Cindy Holland to largely thank for that. Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos has called the longtime Netflix executive instrumental to the development of new shows like the prison comedy-drama Orange is the New Black and Capitol Hill-schemer House of Cards. Indeed, the latter, starring Kevin Spacey, nabbed three Emmys, making it the first web-only series to do so.
Jeff Bezos – CEO and founder, Amazon
Of the top four tech companies, Amazon (AMZN) arguably remains the most intrepid, forsaking profits and chasing after long-term gains. But even company skeptics would probably admit Bezos’s philosophy continually yields exciting results for the consumer. The rapid construction of new fulfillment centers augur faster delivery times for goods, including groceries, which the company expanded into the Los Angeles area this summer. And in November, Amazon announced a partnership with the U.S. Postal Service, enabling Sunday delivery. But even more shocking was the tech CEO’s personal acquisition of The Washington Post for a reported $250 million, proving Bezos, if anything, remains as tireless an innovator as ever.
Jony Ive – Senior vice president of design, Apple
Since joining Apple (AAPL) in 1997, the London-born industrial designer has been key to the way company products look and handle. His latest effort? Leading the redesign of iOS, the operating system powering 700 million-plus mobile devices worldwide. According to Tim Cook, this fall’s iOS 7 update is the biggest ever. Indeed, from a flatter, cleaner look to a new multitasking system, the changes are many, but iOS 7 has been widely praised as a bold new creative direction, particularly for the company’s biggest moneymaker, the iPhone.