Ian Kilpatrick

Chairman, Wick Hill Group

Career so far My last real job was as UK financial controller for a Fortune 50 corporation, before setting up a financial and management consultancy. Then Wick Hill, which has been a lot more fun ever since.

If you could be anyone else for a week, who would you be? Stephen Hawking – to view the world and then the universe through his eyes.

What will next year’s most overhyped industry buzzword be? The cloud will continue to just hold leadership over BYOD.

Has 2012 been a good, bad or ugly year? Considering the economic climate in the UK (messy) and Germany (tough), it’s been essentially a good year for many of our channel partners and therefore for us.

What would you have as your last meal? If I knew it was my last meal I’d probably have lost my appetite.

What keeps you awake at night? My beautiful baby daughter crying.

What piece of technology could you not be without? The iPad and iPhone have slowly but surely ingratiated themselves into my life.

Have any of your predictions come true this year? Yes – I predicted in March that despite press hysteria this wasn’t going to be anything like the summer of 1976. And that it was going to be a big year for wireless and BYOD.

What is the best partner/customer trip you have ever been on? Sitting on a Kaspersky sponsored yacht in Monaco harbour in May watching the Grand Prix is right up there.

What do you see as the channel’s biggest challenge in 2013? A continuation of the current government policy which is directly contributing to the no-growth economy.