Snadden, Ian

A-List 2006

Job title: Director, enterprise sales.

Company: Fujitsu Siemens Computers.

Year of birth: 1966.

Place of birth: Bristol.

Career outline: I was a sales rep with Brother, before I moved to Apricot Mitsubishi. I moved to DEC in 1995, then Compaq after its acquisition to lead indirect channel partners and eventually Distribution.

What motivates you every morning to get up and work in the channel? The excitement and challenges associated with change, adapting to it and leading it in my organisation.

What has been the most over-hyped technology in the past five years? Voice over IP convergence, in particular convergence of voice and data channels.

What will be the most underrated technology in the next five years? The PDA.

Which technology would you most like to have invented? Virtualisation technologies for storage and processing.

Do you have any regrets from your time in the industry? Every experience contributes toward progress in some way or other.

If you could swap places with anyone in the industry, who would it be? Steve Jobs, chief executive of Apple. He has been involved in building and bringing to the world some quite remarkable companies and he has then re-invented those companies when the good times seemed long gone.

What is the biggest hurdle you have faced in your career? Getting the managing director job.

What is the biggest success of your career? Fujitsu Siemens Computers being voted Systems Vendor and Vendor of the year at the CRN Awards in 2005. Being named Channel Personality was also a personal highlight to top off a fantastic night.

What piece of technology could you not live without? My mobile phone and my laptop.

What would be your advice to anyone starting a career in IT? Start slowly and at the bottom and build experience before moving onward. There are too many people out there without accumulating enough experience.

What would you like for Christmas if you could have anything? A few million would be nice.

What is your favorite karaoke song? What’s New Pussycat, by Tom Jones.

What would be the title of your autobiography? Making A Difference – Fire In The Belly.

Do you have any phobias? No.

How many beers before you fall over? 8.

Number of staff you manage? More than 100.

What is your golf handicap? 17.

What car do you drive? Porsche 911 and BMW X5.

Number of air miles you have? I don’t know.