Millionaire Dr Andrew Rickman, 40, whose company Bookham Technology has rocketed in size in the last two years, has been named Entrepreneur of the Year, writes Maggie Hartford.

He was among eight Oxfordshire bosses in the Enterprise 100 Entrepreneurs Awards, listing Britain's top 100 self-made businessmen and women.

Bookham, based at Milton Park, near Abingdon, which is the Oxfordshire Business of the Year, is valued by the City at more than 5bn. Dr Rickman, who owns a third of the company, set it up in 1989 with four people at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton.

The firm recently took on 370 new employees at new factories at Milton Park and in Swindon, making optical components for the computer and phone cable networks.

The Enterprise 100 list is based on growth in sales and employment over the past five years, as well as an assessment of the entrepreneurs' individual wealth.

In 19th place is Dr Paul Drayson, 40, of Powderject Pharmaceuticals, based at Oxford Science Park, who with his wife Elspeth gave 1.2m to an appeal for the new children's accident and emergency unit at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford.

The university spin-off company, which employs 225 at Oxford Science Park, makes a painless injection device using a tiny canister of helium gas to shoot powdered drugs through the skin at supersonic speeds.

Valued at more than 400m, it was founded by Dr Drayson and his wife to commercialise an invention by her father Prof Brian Bellhouse.

Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson, who lives in Kidlington, is placed at number 38. His recording studio at Shipton-on-Cherwell was the home of Virgin Records, which he sold in 1992 to keep his airline and consumer empire afloat.

At 52nd and 54th are two motorsport bosses, Dave Richards of Banbury-based Prodrive and former Oxford Polytechnic graduate Adrian Reynard, of the Reynard Group, which has a division in Bicester.

Dr Peter Lammer and Dr Jan Hruska, of anti-computer virus company Sophos, based at Abingdon Science Park, are listed jointly at 56. They met as post-graduate students at Oxford University.

The eighth Oxfordshire entrepreneur is Sir Frank Williams, of Williams Grand Prix, who set up the company with Patrick Head in a small industrial unit at Station Road in Didcot with a staff of only 17. It is now based at Grove.