Richard Eglon

Marketing director, Comms-care

What was the worst job you have ever had?

I'd have to go back to my school days when I did work experience at a pheasant farm which consisted of looking after 1,000 pheasant chicks. Feeding them was fine; the cleaning up after them wasn't a perk.

Which actor would you pick to play you in a movie of your life?

An ugly one, so when they saw me in the flesh at least they might say "he looks better in real life" rather than the other way round.

What do you do as your party trick?

Having a young family, it tends to be mainly children's parties these days. So my trick is finding innovative excuses to get out of attending - unless it is my own children, of course.

What is your favourite chocolate bar?

I don't think a Twix has ever let me down.

What has been the highlight of your career to date?

When I became marketing director, as it came at the end of many years' hard work.

Has 2014 been a good, bad or ugly year?

It has been a good but challenging year for a number of reasons. Channel businesses have had to adapt and evolve quicker than ever to align themselves with the dramatic changes in how the IT function now operates within a business.

How would you explain the IT channel to a stranger without boring them to death?

It is the interface between the vendors and the end user where real workable solutions are developed in the best interests of the customer. Or, it is full of resilient people who fell into the industry by chance and now can't get out - take your pick!

Aside from the channel, my dream career would be... a fighter pilot.

What major issues will the channel face in 2015?

As the workplace becomes more mobile and the systems to support that more sophisticated areas around cloud computing, hosted services, unified communications and security are all going to play an integral role and the channel need to be aligned to meet these demands in order for them to succeed.