Neil Sawyer

Channel director, HP
What was your dream career as a child?
To become a long-haul pilot for BA.
What has been your personal highlight of 2019?
Seeing my eldest entering her first year at school and hopefully moving to a new house by the time this is published.
Which famous person deserves a (gentle) slap?
I would avoid the slap but definitely would love to have a word with a few of our politicians right now!
What two things (apart from family) would you grab if your house was on fire?
Funnily enough, I had to think about this for real a few months back! My children's cuddly toys always buy some favour in a tricky situation.
Which of your 2019 predictions have come to pass?
Those partners who have continued to reinvent have continued to prosper.
What TV show have you binge watched this year?
Peaky Blinders.
How has 2019 been from a business perspective?
Despite some macro-economic turbulence, another year of growth and development. Our MPS partners have delivered amazing results along with our end user compute channel. We have delivered on all our goals.
What annoys you most about your commute?
Late trains.
If you could witness one past event, what would it be?
The Wright Brothers flying a plane for the first time in 1903.
How do you explain the channel to people?
The best time with the best group of friends you could possibly imagine.
What have been your favourite and least favourite partner conference destinations?
Las Vegas is always good fun. But there must be other places in the world we should see!
What is the biggest challenge facing the channel in 2020?
Managing customer expectations through the choppy waters of Brexit.
More on People
VMware's Gelsinger takes top job at Intel
Virtualisation vendor's leader will return to old stomping ground when current CEO Bob Swan departs next month
9 channel stalwarts reveal their 2021 predictions
We asked a number of channel veterans to sum up what they believe this year has in store for the tech sector
New North CEO Williams open up on plans to scale through M&A and becoming the UK's 'de facto' IoT player
The channel stalwart opens up to CRN about M&A plans, heading the new entity and what attracted him to his new role
Five hiring trends that will shape the next 12 months
Recruitment guru Marc Sumner picks out the five key trends that hiring bosses should be aware of in the coming year
Wick Hill founder departs Nuvias and sets up STEM not-for-profit business
Ian Kilpatrick’s new venture is designed to encourage children into STEM subjects at an early age
More news
Citrix acquires work management platform for $2bn
Purchase of Wrike expected to speed up vendor's cloud and SaaS ambitions
Microsoft Education bosses: 'We're excited about the potential of hybrid learning'
Microsoft's VP of education and its UK director of education speak to CRN about the opportunities around hybrid learning post-pandemic and the industry-wide supply constraints
Industry Voice: New Market Opportunities for Service Providers with VMware SD-WAN
Watch this short animation to learn how VMware SD-WAN by VeloCloud is solving enterprise network challenges.
Former SHI boss Brodrick joins Paragon Micro as UK MD
New UK boss says he aims to make the UK reseller a top 100 VAR in the UK by the end of the year