Managing director, SICL
Career so far I have been managing director of SICL for seven years. Before that, I was operations director for a software company, before which I was an engineer and a project manager.
What was your first job and were you any good at it? I worked at a legal company taking witness statements, generally from those people that the lawyers were frightened of. I was good at it but it wasn't good to me.
Who was your top teenage pin-up? It has to be Kate Bush, which too clearly shows my age but hey ho.
My colleagues won't know this about me but... I hate cheese.
What is your favourite snack? Not cheese, obviously.
What has been your career high point to date? SICL's reputational growth, but I think the real high points may still lie ahead.
Has 2013 been good, bad or ugly? 2013 has been good-to-ugly: good from a business perspective but ugly from a football angle. I support Bolton Wanderers and we're bottom of the Championship as I write this.
What do you say when asked at a party what you do for a living? I tell them I'm an actuary and move the conversation on quickly. Don't ever admit you work in IT; people will either blame you for something or want you to fix something.
If I wasn't working in the channel I would probably be... a little less grey.
What will be the channel's biggest challenge in 2014? Articulating the value of IT investment. How to stop saying ‘cloud' and say something else.
