Shamus Kelly

Career so far I started my IT career with Lotus UK in 1982. I started my own business, NetInfo, in 1995 then merged with others to create Portal in 2006. I became managing director in 2007.

If you could be anyone else for a week, who would you be and what would you do? That's a tricky question. I'm not sure whose role this is, but I would be the person in government that would really start to improve the challenge of unemployment in young adults in our society.

Cloud - friend or foe? Friend. Any technology that impacts what businesses or individuals can achieve with technology is positive. The challenge is to determine how to make it positive for our IT services business, and we are well on the way to doing that.

Has 2011 been as bad as everyone said it would be? 2011 will be our best trading year ever, so I guess that's a "No".

What would you have as your last meal? Something with fresh vegetables from my father's garden in the west of Ireland.

Who would you like to be stuck in a lift with? Nelson Mandela. I think you'd be able to learn things from the air around him.

Have any of your predictions come true this year? I'm not a big one for making predictions. I did think that Apple would make great inroads into bigger business and enterprise computing and I think that trend is accelerating.

What do you see as the channel's biggest challenge in 2012? As ever, it is almost always having vendors really honour their strategic partnership pledges.

What is the best part of your day? Morning, but at least 30 minutes after I've woken up. So much to do, so little time! And you have to make of it what you can, which in many ways is a great privilege.