Apay Obang-Oyway

General manager, Northern Europe, Ingram Micro Cloud

What was the worst job you have ever had?

There has never been a worst job. Every job has been an exciting learning curve.

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

My son will say Tyrese Gibson as everyone says he looks like me; maybe it's the bald head look. Ideally Idris Elba as he will capture my strong presence and my action side.

What do you do as your party trick?

I fall asleep on the dance floor these days.

What is your favourite chocolate bar?

Snickers.

What has been the highlight of your career to date?

Having some face time with Bill Gates.

Has 2014 been a good, bad or ugly year?

It has been an awesome year for many reasons. This year was a year of change and transformation at Ingram Micro. Being part of the transformation team and leading aspects of this transformation has been very exciting. Delivering new branding, new global business structures and innovating to help support the channel transformation while still performing as an organisation has been educational.

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

The channel is like the Philharmonic orchestra, played upon a high-speed train. There are many instruments (vendors and solutions) that when brought together by the conductor (distributors and VARs) create beautiful music or in the channel's case beautiful solutions to address business problems, all the while moving at lightspeed in terms of technological advancement and industry transformation.

Aside from the channel, my dream career would be... an airline pilot.

What major issues will the channel face in 2015?

Leveraging and integrating cloud, mobility, BI and social securely. Aligned to this is deciding what and how to embrace the speed, scale and pace of change in technology from an innovation and consumption perspective as end customers demand more from IT to deliver their business strategy.