Interviews: Interviews

What was your first job?

Dr Kai Li is a professor at Princeton University and one of the founder fathers of de-duplication vendor, Data Domain, which was the subject of an acquisition battle between rivals, NetApp and EMC (the latter won). He talked to TREVOR CLARKE about the technology and what it takes to create a successful start-up.

McAfee Asia-Pacific director for channels and operations, Gavin Struthers, first learnt leadership skills as a military officer in charge of a South African platoon. He talks to DAVID RAMLI about his love of the bush, his drive for success and his interest in building up a regional channel base.

Dynamic Supplies managing director, Scott McLennan, kicked off his career in finance before making the switch to distribution and to ASX-listed player, Cellnet. Following a successful career as CFO, where he was on-hand to witness Cellnet’s growth and acquisitions strategy, McLennan joined Dynamic Supplies. He caught up with NADIA CAMERON to talk about expansion plans, market sentiment and his aspirations.

Callum Eade is Lenovo’s recently appointed director of small business and consumer, and comes to the company with experience in both Australian and New Zealand channel markets. He spoke to MATTHEW SAINSBURY about making the move to Australia, qualifying for the Iron Man world championships, and plans for the future.

Steve Murphy set-up Sydney-based integrator, Frontline Systems, in 1992. He speaks to MATTHEW SAINSBURY about making the best of the economic situation, sales strategies and his favourite food.

He’s only been in the Australian role for a couple of months, but Ingram Micro’s new vice president for A/NZ, Jay Miley, is already looking at ways to restructure and re-energise the business to address the economic climate and changing market. He spoke to ARN about his initial thoughts on 2009.

Wavelink Communications director, Jonathan Ordman, has a dual engineering/MBA background and brings technical and business knowledge to his role. He speaks to ARN about his frustrations with opportunistic resellers and the pains of telemarketing.

CA channel director, Klasie Holtzhausen, had aspirations of running a farm and studied agriculture in South Africa before switching to IT and Australia. He caught up with NADIA CAMERON to talk about horses, market strategies and career achievements.

With many companies cutting headcount and costs to weather the economic downturn, Akamai Technologies President and CEO Paul Sagan wants his sales team to spend more time with customers, part of a bid to make sure that its content delivery and edge-hosting services don't end up on the list of expenses they consider cutting. At the same time, he said the recession will push some companies, particularly those in the retail space, to accelerate their shift to the Internet.