The Queen meets silicon.com columnist

The Queen today got to meet silicon.com columnist René Carayol when he visited Buckingham Palace to collect his MBE for outstanding services to the IT industry.

And any concerns the former IT director and rising media star may have had about the lofty company in which he found himself were quickly dispelled when the Queen asked: "Haven't I see you on television?" However, Carayol was unable to confirm whether Her Majesty was also familiar with his work on the pages of silicon.com.

Carayol described the monarch as "smiling, accessible and friendly - a really good egg", but said his only regret from an otherwise "interesting day" out was the fact there were so few other business leaders there.

"It strikes me as a real missed opportunity not to create more 'business icons'. Publicly rewarding more people for their hard work in the IT industry would be a great way of encouraging more kids to think about careers in IT," he said.

Over the years Carayol has been a vocal member of the IT industry elite and a driver of change within the business. Back in 1999, when our paths first crossed, Carayol, then IT director at IPC Media, which he left in January 2000, was already advocating the inclusion of IT decision-makers on the board.

Carayol was also a regular contributor to silicon.com features such as Behind the Headlines before signing up as a regular columnist at the height of the IT boom.

In 2001 Carayol wrote his book Corporate Voodoo which was serialised on silicon.com.

Throughout such writing he has maintained the importance of effective leadership, championing UK businesses and calculated risk-taking as a necessary way to stand out in a crowd. He has also charted the changing fortunes of UK CIOs as well as highlighting the successes and failures of some of the industry's biggest names.