Age: 52
Nationality: Austrian
www.amadeuscapital.com

A serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Hauser has helped shape the European tech scene for more than 20 years.

His vehicle for defining the future is Amadeus Capital Partners, a fund management company that helps start-ups with early stage finance, business development and management recruitment.

The fund has set up a mobile center in Cambridge, England, to, among other things, help Vodafone Airtouch test third-generation applications. Although his influence spans Europe, Hauser has a soft spot for Cambridge companies.

Recent investments include Cambridge Silicon Radio (see No. 25), which makes chips for the Bluetooth platform, and Cambridge Broadband, which is developing a high-speed broadband wireless access system for areas without cable, fiber optics or digital subscriber line technology.

A physicist by training, he cofounded Acorn Computer Group in Cambridge in 1978 and built it into Britain's most successful PC-maker. When the company faltered after Microsoft's MS-DOS operating system swept the world, Hauser went on to become vice president of research at Olivetti, establishing a global network of research laboratories.

Since then he has founded some 30 European technology companies, including numerous Acorn spin-offs such as ARM (see No. 8), which licenses micro-processors for portable devices.

The vision thing: "A higher market penetration of mobile phones will allow Europe to out-innovate the rest of the world."

Forward spin: In the future, Hauser believes the emphasis will be on wireless data connectivity and the ability to deliver content to multiple platforms.

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