Sir Richard Branson has been voted the business leader most likely to lead his company out of recession with the most innovative head office, according to HR professionals.

In HR magazine's Head Office of the Future research unveiled today in association with Egremont Group, more than a third of HR professionals (34%) voted Branson, CEO of Virgin Group, to be the most capable business leader - and most likely to emerge in the economic recovery with the leanest and most innovative head office of the future.

Sir Terry Leahy, CEO of Tesco came in second with 23% of the vote. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the co-founders of Google, took joint third position with 17% of the vote followed by Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer with 7%.

Five percent of HR professionals surveyed thought Theo Paphitis, entrepreneur and Dragon's Den judge stood out as the most capable CEO - above The Apprentice star Sir Alan Sugar (4%), Ian Livingston of BT (4%) and Arcadia's Sir Philip Green (4%).

Only 1% of respondents thought Sir Stuart Rose of Marks and Spencer was the most capable CEO to lead his organisation out of recession with an innovative head office of the future.