Last year’s No. 1 Newsmaker Lloyd Bryant announced his retirement late in 2015 and he goes out at the top of his game; leaving the industry wanting more. It was very hard to choose one single person for the HP separation story so the CDN staff decided on another tie and introduced Charlie Atkinson to the Top 25 list as the main driver for the Enterprise side of things at HP.
Atkinson was very visible in the marketplace in 2015 and you can make a case that he ended up becoming the face of the separation in Canada.
Proof of this occurred about a month before the official HP separation date when Atkinson hosted a road show in Toronto that was packed with solution providers.
This wasn’t just a simple meet and greet networking session but the executive providing the channel with a go-to-market strategy based on four pillars:
1. Transformation to a hybrid infrastructure, which will be centered on cloud;
2. Protection of digital enterprises, which will have a heavy focus on security;
3. Empowering the data driven organization that will be the company’s big data and analytics play; and
4. Enabling workplace productivity that will look to address mobility.
Atkinson followed up about a month later with a definitive plan to address the cloud market that would be part of an over-arching digital transformation strategy.
“With Hybrid IT, customers running in traditional mode now have an opportunity to go digital. We have the organizational reach and innovative power to deliver it to customers with enterprise services and software even in an era of economic challenge with our Canadian dollar,” he said in a previous interview.
On the HP Inc. side the Sprout Pro all-in-one printer with the Intel RealSense camera that can capture 3D renderings made a huge splash along with the creation of a whole new high performance computing category in the Z Book line.
But the departure of Bryant, one of the most well-liked and respected executives on the Canadian computing scene, will have lasting effect on the channel.
During 30 years at HP, Bryant worked in a variety of key leadership positions including leading the subsidiary’s Printing and Personal Systems business.
Rick Reid, president of Tech Data Canada, worked collaboratively with Bryant for many of those years and said: “Lloyd is more than the head of HP Inc., he’s a long-time friend. Even stronger than his reputation as a leader is his honesty, integrity and focus on his family. He will be sadly missed but I wish him a very pleasant next phase of his life.”
Click here to check out the full list of CDN’s Top 25 Newsmakers of 2015.
