The biggest influences on my career were the late Edsger Wybe Dijkstra (his Wikipedia entry) and Michael Jackson (his website) and (his Wikipedia entry).
These two gentlemen helped make my programming career more enjoyable (and successful) than it might otherwise have been. I still rely on much of what I learnt from them. More importantly, their contribution to software engineering cannot be overstated.
I have been lucky enough to work with some amazing people during my career and I have benefited from knowing and working with many of my former colleagues. Three stand out in my memory: each demonstrated professionalism and ethics of the highest order. So, in alphabetic order, I would like to thank Robert (Bob) Briggs, David Cooke, and Edward (Ed) Rashbrooke. Unfortunately I do not have a link for Bob. but you can see David's LinkedIn entry here; Ed's website is here and his LinkedIn entry is here.