Rod Johnson (of VMware / SpringSource) has been recognised in the top 5 people that had an impact for Australian IT in 2010.

The list was put together by reporter Brett Winterford of IT News.

Here is what the article says on Rod (but go read it at the source too).

A relative unknown outside open source circles until late last year, Sydney-bred Rod Johnson built an open source business that he sold to virtualisation giant VMware for a solid A$505 million in August 2009.

But Johnson didn't spend 2010 counting his riches. Under VMware, Springsource has grown from strength to strength, acquiring Gemstone and Rabbit Technologies and signing a joint venture with Salesforce.com.

Johnson now heads a team that is at the forefront of offering platform-as-a-service. He has also become a noteworthy speaker on the events circuit, offering advice to other Australian software entrepreneurs.

Great to see Rod recognised in this way. I met Rod in person at the CTO event for vExperts at VMworld last year (2010). Apart from making bit of a fool of myself with verbal gibberish (I was a little star struck) I did say that there were many in Australia who looked up to Rod as great example in the Australian IT industry. Rod was a bit perplexed at the comment. Its good to see that I am not alone in that thought.

Rodos