Justin Garlick

Career so far My first job was as a children's party organiser at the local leisure centre. I eventually found my way into IT services but the principles of management learnt with the kids are still as relevant in boardrooms today! I've set up and sold a couple of services businesses of late and this, I've discovered, I love to do.

If you could be anyone else for a week, who would you be and what would you do? Charlie Sheen, just to explore the possibilities of human endurance and consumption.

Cloud - friend or foe? Friend of a few, foe of many.

Has 2011 been as bad as everyone said it would be? We provide specialised, channel-friendly services in Red Hat Linux, VDi and Oracle; you would be hard pushed to think anything was wrong.

What would you have as your last meal? Scrambled eggs on toast with ground black pepper... yum. Or vodka jelly would qualify as food, I believe.

Who would you like to be stuck in a lift with? It depends how long you're stuck there. In no particular order: my lawyer, my former business partner, Jessica Rabbit and Warren Buffett.

Have any of your predictions come true this year? Yes, I predicted the remake of Conan the Barbarian without Arnold would be crap - it was. I said Ed Miliband would disappoint - he does. I said the Verisolve business would grow - it did. Other than that no; the future will unfold as it should.

What do you see as the channel's biggest challenge in 2012? The same as it has always been - understanding what customers want and enabling the delivery of the reality over the hype. The channel needs to do what it has always done well - focus on the clients, evolve their competencies, remain innovative and not be intimidated by vendor power.

What is the best part of your day? Getting up just after dawn and either bashing out the six-mile run with the dog or a two-mile swim before work. After that the rest of the day seems easy.