David Furby

CEO, Novatech

What has been your business highlight of 2022?

Novatech has an in-house developed self-service platform that automates all the requests from our Direct 2 Desk customers for their remote worker joiner/mover/leaver IT device management. This has been up and running for nearly four years now. In August it hit a new record of over 5,200 requests in a month. We also processed all those requests without drawing any power from the national grid due to our solar array big switch on!

If you were ruler of your own country, what law would you introduce first?

I would make a law that said the electricity companies had to pay small generators like me at least 50 per cent of what they charge their customers.

Which channel or tech leader (outside of your own company) has impressed you most in 2022?

I would have to say Donavan Hutchinson. I saw him speak at the CRN Channel Leadership Forum earlier this year. I think the way he has managed to build such a widely diverse team in an industry that isn't known for its diversity inspired me to try harder.

If you had a warning label, what would it say?

"Don't call me Dave!"

What was your first job?

If you exclude a year's industrial placement during my degree, Novatech was my first "job".

What was the last book you read, and was it any good?

Michael Dell's Play Nice But Win. The way he has built Dell is a truly amazing story. It also brought back lots of great memories for me from the 1990s.

What's the most important lesson you've learned from another business leader or mentor?

It's an old one I learnt very early in business but is maybe coming back into fashion a bit this year: "Cash is king."

Who would play you in a movie of your life?

Well, George Clooney, obviously!