Wayne Emerson

Commercial director, System Professional

Career so far I spent eight years in sales at ISG Technology, and at the point I left was managing the national sales team. I then spent a year as sales director at an enterprise content management consultancy but moved on as the regular travel to Canada didn't fit well with my young family. I've been at System Professional for six years.

What was your first job and were you any good at it? It was as a lifeguard and gym coach at the local leisure centre. Was I any good? No one died while I was there!

Who was your top teenage pin-up? It probably explains the reasons behind my answer above, but it was probably Pamela Anderson (pre too much surgery!).

My colleagues won't know this about me but... I've been on TV playing in a football match.

What is your favourite snack? Very traditional, but cheese and onion crisps.

What has been your career high point to date? Winning a multi-year, nationwide infrastructure project for a global fast-food restaurant.

Has 2013 been good, bad or ugly? It's been really good so far. We are currently well ahead of plan, our EUC practice has had some notable wins and our managed services business is growing well.

What do you say when asked at a party what you do for a living? I say I run a small, but perfectly formed IT company.

If I wasn't working in the channel I would probably be... coaching football.

What will be the channel's biggest challenge in 2014? Helping customers to cut through the marketing noise. Everyone's talking about cloud and it's not really helping. I think that customers need to understand what it really means for their business; all of us in the channel need to avoid getting caught up in the marketing spin.