Chief executive, Portal
Career so far I started out as a teacher and enjoyed it for seven years; in fact I remember I then took a pay cut when I moved into IT from teaching. Not many people can claim that! I worked at Atari (what a brand!) and then Lotus UK. Through a few years I progressed to sales director at Lotus but then decided I’d rather run and control a smaller entity than be part of a bigger one. The company I founded then became part of Portal six years ago and I’ve been running the company for the past four years.
If you could be anyone else for a week, who would you be? Richard Branson. I’d be bound to learn something of his brand development, communication skills, strategy development and very effective social media skills.
What will next year’s most overhyped industry buzzword be? I might go for BYOD. But maybe this is already 2012’s. So I may be better going for augmented reality – what’s that all about?
Has 2012 been a good, bad or ugly year? It doesn’t matter how ugly it might have been in places, we have to make it a good one. It has been a challenge but a good year in our business and I really got to enjoy London 2012. Therein lies a lot for all of us in Great Britain to be proud of.
What would you have as your last meal? I have to really have what I asked for last year… anything with fresh vegetables from my dad’s garden in west Donegal (made even tastier by the fact that he’s 88).
What keeps you awake at night? Only our cat, climbing in the bedroom window from our roof. She is well known among the neighbours as the “climbing cat”.
What piece of technology could you not be without? Likely now my iMac at home. I just really enjoy using it for business and family, and that as a device it really brings things together and makes access to them easy.
Have any of your predictions come true this year? I think I was right that the transition to cloud would be slower and is slower than we think and also that Apple products will continue to entice extra money from the consumer market, which ultimately affects the corporate market.
What is the best partner/customer trip you have ever been on? Bruce Springsteen, Camp Nou, Barcelona – what a combination!
What do you see as the channel’s biggest challenge in 2013? The chasm is as it has always been – balancing the variable income available to our business alongside the sometimes unrealistic expectations of consistently high earnings from those who work in the IT marketplace – but I love it!
