Tom Kelly

Chairman, SipSynergy, Agilitas and BCN Group

What is your greatest career move to date?

Seeking out and working with clever people who pursue intelligent and commercial opportunity.

What is top of your bucket list?

To skydive from 25,000ft.

What has changed most since you started working in the channel?

The large OEMs have always been dominant. Their power base and control over the partner community is now waning due to the huge impact of the cloud and their respective tardiness in reacting to it.

How do you think Brexit is going to affect the channel?

The obvious areas are currency volatility, access to skilled resource but more worryingly, will Dublin, Paris or Berlin become the new London as the home of new tech ideas?

What is your least favourite task during the working day?

A working lunch - a contradiction in terms.

If you were an animal, what would you be?

A buzzard. Fly high and enjoy the view.

If you won the big one on EuroMillions, what would you do?

Spend, spend, spend - you are a long time dead.

What is your worst habit?

Showing that I am being bored by boring people.

How has 2016 been for you?

It has been great; new investments in SipSynergy and BCN Group with very intelligent go-to-market people.

If you didn't work in the IT channel, what would be your dream career?

An engineer working at NASA.

What major issues will the channel face in 2017?

Watching the large OEMs attempting to cross the chasm of the cloud.