Top 10 technology executives to follow on Twitter

Here at V3, we're big fans of micro-blogging phenomenon Twitter. It's a great way of keeping up to date with the key figures in the technology industry, and gauging reaction to major events and product releases.

For those of you new to Twitter, or looking for some inspiration on who to follow, we've put together our top 100 favourite technology twitterers, and will be revealing them over the next 10 days. Coming up in our guide are the top 10 tech celeb tweeters, the top 10 for security and the top 10 innovators to watch.

To get on the list, we looked for people who are regular Twitter users, who have something interesting to say and who are followed by the V3 team. We didn't base the list on who has the most followers or is already the biggest Twitter name in their field, as we're aiming to introduce you to tweeters you might not be aware of.

To start us off, we've gathered the 10 technology executives that any IT professional should follow to keep track of the latest industry news and product developments.

Top 10 Technology Executives

Padmasree Warrior, Cisco chief technology officer @padmasree
With over one million Twitter followers, the Cisco CTO is a shining example not only of how tech execs can embrace social networking, but of how women can break through the glass ceiling to take high-profile IT roles.

Matt Asay, open source advocate @mjasay
Matt Asay recently left his role as chief operating officer at Ubuntu developer Canonical to join mobile apps startup Strobe. We'd recommend following Asay for his insights on the latest tech and products without constantly pushing a corporate message.

Matt Cutts, head of the Webspam team at Google @mattcutts
The Googler uses his Twitter account to share the latest Google news and to offer tips and advice to his followers.

Chris Anderson, TED curator @TEDchris
Chris's Twitter feed is a mirror of what the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) non-profit organisation aims to achieve - spread ideas. Follow Chris for his views on the big news stories of the day, as well as snippets on the latest technology and other TED talks.

Michael Dell, Dell chairman and CEO @MichaelDell
Not many technology CEOs have their own Twitter account, and when they do, it's often filled with impersonal posts and plugs for the firm. Michael Dell's account is refreshingly personal, and he uses Twitter not only to update his followers on the latest at Dell, but to talk directly to customers and others in the industry.

Kevin Rose, founder of Digg @kevinrose
The founder of the community content site is very active on Twitter, on everything from his latest Milk venture to Macbook Airs and Spotify. For updates of a more canine nature, you can also follow his labradoodle Toaster, who apparently has a very high Klout score.

Evan Williams, Twitter co-founder @ev
The farmboy from Nebraska offers some useful tidbits of information, as well as his views on all things tech.

Mike Chambers, principal product manager of Adobe Flash @mesh
A useful source for Adobe updates, as well as hands-on tech advice.

Stefan Weitz, Microsoft search executive @stefanweitz
Follow Stefan to keep up with the latest industry search news.

Chuck Hollis, EMC VP Global Marketing CTO @chuckhollis
Chuck is a big fan of Twitter, judging by the very frequent updates, and offers an entertaining flow of information about tech along with some more random insights.

You can follow the tech execs list at V3's Twitter account. Next in our series is the Top 10 Technology Peers, so remember to check back on V3 on Tuesday to see who to follow in the CIO space. You can read all the previous entries for the Top 100 Technology Tweeters on the V3 site.

These lists aren't in a particular order, but at the end of the series we'll be revealing the top 10 of the top 10s, so please comment below or email us to let us know who your favourites are, and we can add your votes to the count.

And don't forget to follow the whole V3 team on Twitter with this handy list of all our journalists.