Jon Thorpe

Managing director, acs

Career so far I went from university to Wildings to starting acs aged 25: 17 years later I am still learning and having fun with great, great friends, colleagues and partners.

If you could be anyone else for a week, who would you be? Rory McIlroy, for my love of winning, golf and tennis!

What will next year’s most overhyped industry buzzword be? www.datastore365.co.uk… hopefully not overhyped but one to get “on the bus” with for winning in the cloud.

Has 2012 been a good, bad or ugly year? Good…acs is growing, has received Sunday Times Top 100 recognition, had a London opening and the cloud is flying.

What would you have as your last meal? Liver and bacon at T2Sugars.

What keeps you awake at night? The kids.

What piece of technology could you not be without? My Rangefinder.

Have any of your predictions come true this year? Yes.

What is the best partner/customer trip you have ever been on? HP Vegas 2012 and HP Ryder Cup 2010. The emotion of Europe winning on the 17th at Celtic Manor will never leave me.

What do you see as the channel’s biggest challenge in 2013? Next year will generally be tough but equally the year of opportunity, threats and making money for pockets of the channel A landscape of new players, re-invented players and further consolidation of players will continue with the biggest challenge being for those who have not invested in their people, partner accreditations and cloud services.