Managing director, OCF
Career so far I was a chartered accountant in practice until 1991, then finance director of a number of engineering companies until 1997. I've been in IT since then, and bought OCF in 2002 with the then-management team.
If you could be anyone else for a week, who would you be? A young David Attenborough. What a life he has had - is there anything in the natural world that he has not seen or experienced?
What will next year's most overhyped industry buzzword be? Probably cloud.
Has 2012 been a good, bad or ugly year? For OCF, 2012 has been exceptional. Not only is it our 10-year anniversary, but our business levels are at a record high as is the current pipeline of opportunity. HPC is coming home, as they say!
What would you have as your last meal? No idea - it would probably depend upon the time of day and how I was feeling. There would be a lot of wine though.
What keeps you awake at night? Nothing.
What piece of technology could you not be without? Probably a car. I am fortunate in that I am old and have had to do without most of today's technical wonders for a great deal of my life. Laptops, mobile phones and the like are recent innovations for me and I doubt that I use any of them to their maximum capacity.
Have any of your predictions come true this year? I am not sure. I am not really in the business of making predictions. I have been confident for a number of years that the adoption of HPC technology will widen and this is continuing to happen. I did forsee Doncaster Rovers relegation, but, like Arnie, they will be back.
What is the best partner/customer trip you have ever been on? Probably a trip to Majorca with what was InTechnology. It was very luxurious and included my wife. Partners have to put up with a great deal and it was great to have Lorraine get some benefit and meet the people that I deal with on an ongoing basis.
What do you see as the channel's biggest challenge in 2013? For those that have not adapted their business models to today's market, staying in business will be the biggest challenge. If you do not add value to the supply chain, you will be eliminated. Simples!
