Agenda Setters: Where are they now... Eric Schmidt

As the countdown begins to silicon.com's ninth annual Agenda Setters poll of tech's 50 most influential individuals, it is time to look back at those who held top 5 positions in 2007. Today we catch up on last year's number three, Eric Schmidt.

A year of frenetic activity by Google means Eric Schmidt, the search giant's CEO, can be confident of a return to the Agenda Setters poll this year.

Google has spread its tentacles into the browser and mobile phone markets with the release of Chrome and the announcement of its Android OS for handsets.

Less appetising for Schmidt has been Viacom suing Google for $1bn over copyright infringement on its video sharing site YouTube, together with the near 40 per cent drop in its stock price since November last year, amid a slowing US economy.

The company's eclectic portfolio continues to blossom, with projects to digitise health records and books and the opening up of its experimental endeavours, under Google Labs, to the public.

According to Google's corporate website, Schmidt is "focused on building the corporate infrastructure needed to maintain Google's rapid growth as a company and on ensuring that quality remains high while product development cycle times are kept to a minimum".

That far-reaching vision certainly tallies with the company's track record under Schmidt, despite it still relying on search advertising for the bulk of its revenue.

Schmidt has been firmly entrenched in the Agenda Setters top 10 for the past five years.

But the former Novell boss certainly proved divisive for silicon.com readers in the 2007 poll, with 39 votes for him to be moved up the rankings but 47 pushing for a demotion.

On its 10th birthday in September 2008 Google insisted it was far more interested in the future than in its humble beginnings as post-graduate project for its founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Now, as the company prepares to evolve into a much larger and more complex organisation, Schmidt's track record suggests he will be the one to take Google to the next level.

Schmidt is a cast iron cert for next year's, if not the next decade's, Agenda Setters.

silicon.com's Agenda Setters panel, made up again of CIOs, analysts, VCs, consultants, lawyers, academics and other experts, convenes in September. Stay tuned for the results - to be revealed at the beginning of October.