Jacqui Rand

Co-founder/director, Channeliser 

Which tech figurehead do you admire the most?

Neil Holloway (senior VP Microsoft and UK managing director for more than 14 years) for his unique mix of industry and technical understanding, coupled with patience, empathy, grit, enthusiasm and generosity of spirit and with his time to help others. (We met at Bath Uni so I have known him a very long time!) 

What's the biggest challenge facing the industry no-one is talking about yet?

Principles in many IT companies are my age - we all need to embrace social, partner-to-partner and other new business practices and bring in millennials to positions of responsibility. 

If you could invite three famous people to dinner, who would they be?

William Tutte, cryptographer at Bletchley and researcher of graph theory which contributed to the evolution of the internet, so we all owe him. Also, Frank Sinatra and James Dean - both for obvious reasons!

How has 2017 been for you?

Excellent, busy, challenging, successful, exhausting. 

What's the most extravagant business lunch you've ever had?

Copenhagen, 1989 celebrating the sale of Peter Norton Computing to Symantec with partners and execs. 

Which global city best matches your personality?

I'm not a city girl - give me a country pub with a fire and a dog any time! 

What would be your super-hero power?

Batman - check out those wheels!

Complete this sentence. The worst thing about our rivals is… they are not industry specific so it's just noise, whereas we are the only IT industry social platform that facilitates business partnerships. 

What makes you nervous?

Politicians - both world and local. And lack of respect for our planet. 

If you could eat one type of food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Starters - plenty of variety.

Sum up the channel in three words

Innovative, careful, brokers. 

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