CDN’s annual review of the unforgettable men and women who made impactful news in the Canadian channel community. This year’s list is comprised of 25 top executives from solution providers, the vendor community, distribution, government, and people who really matter to the Canadian channel. Plus, check out the special bonus newsmaker.
This week we’ll be compiling a slideshow of our Top 25 Newsmakers List. Click on to see our Newsmakers #20-16.
The other top newsmakers:
Newsmakers #25-21
Number 20
Jason MacKay, general manager at Comparex Canada
By: CDN Staff
Jason MacKay, with some help from CDN No. 1 Newsmaker Janet Kennedy, president of Microsoft Canada, brought in high profile born in the cloud solution provider Comparex to Canada.
The company, founded in Leipzig, Germany, hired Mackay as its first ever leader for the Canadian operation. Mackay, a long time senior executive at Microsoft Canada and CompuCom Canada, said the two Microsoft Canada data centres had a significant reason for his company entering the Canadian marketplace, but Mackay added it was not the determining factor.
Number 19
Richard Eyram, area vice president at Salesforce Canada
By: Brian Jackson
Richard Eyram makes the CDN Top 25 Newsmakers list for the first time because of Project Salesforce Einstein.
The Area VP of Salesforce Canada saw the unveiling of his company’s artificial intelligence engine, dubbed Salesforce Einstein, that will be integrated across its platform and provide users with new functions such as predictive lead scoring and vision-based search.
Salesforce Einstein has the potential to completely turn deal registration upside down for channel partners.
Number 18
Sam Sabastian, vice president and general manager at Google Canada
Well the face of Google Canada Sam Sabastian did well for non-profits in Canada in 2016 by giving 10 Canadian non-profits $5 million in its Go North campaign. But the question is; Can Google make the channel happy.
And, in 2016 the search giant tried — at least in the retail channel — by opening 10 small Google shops inside Best Buy locations. The plan will see Google follow that up with four larger shops in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, and in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga, Ont., by year’s end. Within these shops, customers can book one-on-one appointments with trained staff and partake in hands-on weekly workshops on Google products.
Number 17
Tony Lacavera, AI advocate and founder of NextAI
By: Eric Emin Wood
Tony Lacavera is putting his money where his mouth is.
The former Wind Mobile CEO sits on the board of startup-funding charity Next Canada, whose venture capital firm Globalive Communications Corp. is one of its leading financial backers of Artificial Intelligence. Lacavera’s initiative is called NextAI.
Number 16
Greg Tobin, general manager at D&H Canada
By: Paolo Del Nibletto
In 2016 there was a lot of talk about Canada being over-distributed. While many distribution leaders believe this is the case, one executive is offering a different point of view: Greg Tobin, the GM of D&H Canada.
D&H Canada has continued to grow under the watchful eye of Tobin. In 2016, the distributor achieved 26 per cent average growth overall year-over-year, which exponentially outpaced the performance of 2-tiered distribution in Canada as measured by research firm the NPD Group.