Frank Salmon

CEO, CMS Distribution

What has been your personal highlight of 2021?

The biggest highlight for 2021 must be the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine, which helped to restore some form of normality in our lives, and on a personal level, acquiring Sysob (an Enterprise Security Distributor) in Germany was a great achievement by our team.

Which tech figurehead has impressed you the most this year, and why?

Zhang Yiming, the founder of ByteDance and creator of TikTok, the world's most downloaded app ever.

Which one lockdown habit do you plan to keep going?

Video calls. I must admit prior to lockdown I was not a fan and did not know how to use Zoom or Teams. Thankfully today video calls are the norm for both business and personal calls.

Which face-to-face industry event are you most excited to return to, and why?

I haven't been to an industry event yet, however I do think 2022 will see normal resumption which I look forward to.

If you had the time to learn one new skill, what would it be?

To type; we spend so long typing emails I suspect I would gain hours per week.

If you could go back in time and tell your childhood self one thing, what would you say?

Value the stuff you can influence, and de-value the stuff you can't, and enjoy the journey.

If you had to sing karaoke, what would be your song of choice?

San Francisco, by Scott McKenzie.

Sum 2021 up in three words.

Relentless, reflective, purpose.