Richard Roberts

Career so far: I have worked at Cisco for more than 12 years in two spells, and am currently the head of the UK & Ireland partner organisation. Prior to this, I was Cisco UK's distributed government sales operation (covering local government, healthcare and higher education).

If you could be anyone else for a week, who would you be and what would you do? Sheikh Mansour, and I would cash in my chips at Manchester City, buy Leeds United and build a team and a stadium worthy of carrying the name.

Cloud - friend or foe? Absolutely a friend. The cloud heralds a fantastic opportunity for Cisco and its partners to deliver powerful new IT consumption options for its customers.

Has 2011 been as bad as everyone said it would be? 2011 has been a year of differentiation and value creation. The last 12 months have underpinned what technology can achieve and we will certainly leave 2011 stronger than we entered it.

What would you have as your last meal? It would have to be home-made Yorkshire stew and dumplings - I'm a comfort food guy.

Who would you like to be stuck in a lift with? Douglas Adams. More science faction than science fiction perhaps, and someone who wanted to both inform and get things done. Great conversation assured.

Have any of your predictions come true this year? Wales getting to the semi-final of the Rugby World Cup. On a serious note, the boundaries between work and personal devices have become blurred in 2011. This was inevitable but the consumerisation of enterprise devices has come around sooner than expected.

What do you see as the channel's biggest challenge in 2012? Profitable differentiation in a world of changing consumption models, and an ability to deliver value-based customer outcomes more efficiently than ever before.

What is the best part of your day? Driving home, fired-up after a great day with partners, music loud, road empty, singing in tune strictly optional.