2022’s most ‘iconic’,’ innovative’, ‘successful’, ‘inspiring’, ‘influential’ CEO you’ve never heard of?

Can anyone beat this?

During the course of this year -and we aren’t finished yet, though maybe I am now, I have been short-listed to feature in, or more often appear as the cover story, in no fewer than 12 purportedly industry sector leading publications.

Despite no prior contact with me, my team or any relevant stakeholder, and as a proud CEO/MD of a SME slowly and gradually carving out a niche in the EdTech sector with honesty and humility, unbeknown to me, my achievements appear nevertheless to be already legendary. So much so that I deserve to be invited to join the ranks of the elite and included in reports with titles where superlatives are almost universally obligatory:

Is it thus that I was identified as one of “The Most Iconic CEOs to follow in 2022“, one of The Most Innovative Business leaders in, 2022 Insights Success magazine and of course “The Most Influentional Business Leaders shaping the Modern Industry”.

Being invited to appear in “Innovative Business Leaders Making a Difference 2022“ sounded almost mundane by comparison.

Sometimes the short-listed category can be quite competitive: just one of the best of 30 as in “30 Best Leaders to watch” (really!) or one of 20 as in The 20 Most Inspiring Business Leaders Making a Difference, 2022 (but at least the cover story was an option here).

David de Jager Perfectly Spoken MD at BETT2020

However, it was reassuring that as a natural result of intensive, exhaustive research, most had concluded that I was at least top 10 material as in: “The 10 Most Inspiring Business Leaders Making a Difference 2022” (Jan-2022) “10 Admired CEOs to Watch, 2022” and “10 Most Influential CEOs in 2022“.

But my two favourite accolades have to be:

As I approach retirement age , the offer of inclusion in “The 10 Young and Inspiring Business Leaders to Watch in 2022“
And as a wonderful testament to a mishmash of hyperbole and almost incomprehensible use of the English language: The Most Successful Business Leader to Watch Out

Cynically you might conclude that all this would have come at a cost. And you are right. But reassuringly just ‘nominal” or ‘minimal’ fees of between $700 to $5000.

And despite having been identified as such a star attraction that publications seemed desperate to feature me, I suspect you’re not that surprised to find that when I responded to approaches explaining that we were not interested in paying fees, interest in me seemed to drop off a cliff.

Which is why I’m still possibly 2022’s most ‘iconic’,’ innovative’, ‘successful’, ‘inspiring’, ‘influential’ CEO you’ve never heard of.

Maybe 2023 will change that. Or not