Sawkins, Clive
A-List 2006
Job title: Director, unified communications.
Company: Cisco.
Year of birth: 1962.
Place of birth: Ongar, Essex.
Career outline: Twenty years in the communications industry with Nortel, Aspect, Unisys, Avaya and Cisco in a number of positions.
What motivates you every morning to get up and work in the channel? Twenty years of friendships and the chance to work with some great people who have the same drive and energy that I have.
What has been the most over-hyped technology in the past five years? IP Centrex.
What will be the most underrated technology in the next five years? Radio frequency identification.
Which technology would you most like to have invented? IP. It will change the way we work, live and play going forward. We will all be connected by IP.
Do you have any regrets from your time in the industry? None at all, it has been a blast.
If you could swap places with anyone in the industry, who would it be? Bill Gates or John Chambers. Both have changed the way the world communicates and both have also given back so much to the world.
What is the biggest hurdle you have faced in your career? The move from Avaya to Cisco. A big step and one I have no regret over, but at the time it was a very hard decision to make.
What is the biggest success of your career? Winning two very large deals when the other vendors should have walked all over us.
What piece of technology could you not live without? My Trio: email, text, phone and diary in one.
What would be your advice to anyone starting a career in IT? Work hard, get trained and always be one step ahead when it comes to new technology.
What is your favorite computer game? Not sure I have one. I must be getting old.
What would you like for Christmas if you could have anything? Triumph TR4a in Blue.
What is your favorite karaoke song? Sex Bomb, by Tom Jones.
What would be the title of your autobiography? At Full Chat.
Do you have any phobias? No.
How many beers before you fall over? 8.
Number of staff you manage? 100.
What is your golf handicap? 30.
What car do you drive? Jaguar XJ.
Number of air miles you have? Thousands.