Darren Grasby

Career so far: I've so far spent over 20 years in the PC component business. I joined AMD in 2007, and since then I've been heading up our EMEA partner and channel/component sales strategy.

If you could be anyone else for a week, who would you be and what would you do? I would love to spend a week as Simon Cowell, given that he gets to spend the entire Saturday and Sunday night with Dannii Minogue and Cheryl Cole - what man in the UK wouldn't.

What would I do? That's easy - I'd rid the world of Diva Fever and Jedward.

What would you have as your last meal? You can't beat steak for a meal - so that's probably a good start for my last meal, along with a really good and expensive bottle of red wine, of course.

What is the best corporate jolly you have ever been on/taken partners on? I'm a huge rugby fan, so my best corporate jollies are always those which indulge my passion for the sport and strengthen relationships with our partners.

Do you see the cloud as a threat or an opportunity? The cloud is a huge opportunity for any company playing in the server space and industry analysts predict that the technology will generate huge revenues in years to come. As a result, we've responded by launching a new range of processors which balance performance and low-energy consumption to ensure our customers can drive a cost-effective cloud environment.

Have any of your predictions come true this year? At the beginning of the year, I predicted that 2010 was going to be the year AMD excelled in graphics. Over the last 12-months, we've successfully brought an entire range of DX11 graphics cards for every budget to market. We're now on to the next generation and expect to see a great response to those cards as well. We've also managed to grow our market share in graphics too, so I guess as a company we've actually exceeded my initial predictions.

What do you see as the channel's biggest challenge in 2011? With the ongoing economic uncertainty, 1H 2011 has the potential to be turbulent, I fully expect to see more consolidation in the distribution channel. From a corporate/enterprise standpoint, the recently announced government cuts in budgets will, of course, affect IT spending. However, given our price performance lead in the server space, AMD is confident in delivering cost-effective solutions. With these challenges I fully expect margins to be put under pressure also. In my mind, 2H 2011 will start to show a slow sustainable recovery to the IT sector.

What is the best part of your day? After a busy day, I really enjoy getting home, seeing the family and catching up on the day's events. Also, as my role at AMD involves global interactions, I spend quite a bit of my time travelling, so this time at home is very precious, especially after fighting my way home from Gatwick around the M25.

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