Pacey, Edward

A-List 2006

Job title Director of credit services.

Company Bell Microproducts Europe BV.

Year of birth 1949.

Place of birth Cyprus.

Career outline Some 30 years or so involvement in credit management in three industry sectors covering film, television and entertainment, engineering and latterly distribution in the IT sector.

What motivates you every morning to get up and work in the channel? Each day brings a fresh challenge and the sector we work in never stands still. What is stable today is unstable tomorrow and the pace of change brings with it a demand for reading events, and predicting movement and eventuality.

What has been the most over-hyped technology in the past five years? Anything I’ve read about that is jargon: why we have to come up with initials for everything baffles me.

What will be the most underrated technology in the next five years? The best technology is often rarely acknowledged, but absorbed by us all in daily life. We all use it, but probably forget how important it is to us. I would guess mobile telephony, storage and the next phase of web development and communication.

Which technology would you most like to have invented? Microsoft software.

Do you have any regrets from your time in the industry? None really, although I do regret not making a killing when Ideal Hardware first floated in 1994.

If you could swap places with anyone in the industry, who would it be? Not sure I’d like to swap, but given that Bill Gates has turned more toward charity work having made his pile, swapping places with him while he is giving his money away would be great.

What is the biggest hurdle you have faced in your career? Raising the profile of credit.

What is the biggest success of your career? A fair measure of success in raising the profile of credit externally and the channel as a whole.

What piece of technology could you not live without? The web. I spend hours on it at home.

What would be your advice to anyone starting a career in IT? Be alert, be innovative, be motivated, but more importantly, be willing to take the knocks and keep coming.

What is your favorite computer game? Online poker.

What would you like for Christmas if you could have anything? A beautiful villa somewhere in the Mediterranean.

What is your favorite karaoke song? I hate karaoke. It’s the passion of failed singers and X-Factor never-will-be’s.

What would be the title of your autobiography? The Godfather’s Chant.

Do you have any phobias? Yes. Renault adding a ‘y’ to the Renault Espace.

Number of staff you manage? 5.

What is your golf handicap? 28.

What car do you drive? Jaguar S-Type R.

Number of air miles you have? Not looked recently.