CDN Top 25 Newsmakers of 2014, Part 1

CDN Top 25 Newsmakers of 2014

Splits, acquisitions, and even arrests – in 2014 we saw it all. Be it for good or bad, CDN’s list of Top 25 Newsmakers of 2014 looks at the people, groups and stories that made the biggest splash this past year. Seven fresh faces came from Lenovo, IBM, Nutanix, BlackBerry, Cisco, Huawei and even the RCMP. There may be more than a couple of surprises.

Do you agree? Do you disagree? Let us know in the comments below.

Stay tuned as we also update CDN with full profiles of all our top 25 newsmakers.

Lloyd Bryant

General Manager, HP Canada

HP’s split may have attracted big headlines for the company and its general manager, but that doesn’t mean it was the company’s only story for 2014. Bryant said of his 28 years at HP Canada, 2014 may have been the biggest in terms of the number of innovative products rolled out.

Jay Parker

Lenovo President, North America

As the president of Lenovo North America, Jay Parker did his best to shed light on the company’s two huge purchases involving Motorola Mobility and IBM. The two deals left quite a stir within the channel community in 2014, to say the least.

Janet Kennedy

President, Microsoft Canada

Since arriving in Canada, Janet Kennedy has managed to bring stability to her “dream job” – the role of president of Microsoft Canada. It was not an easy task, considering it involved transitioning Microsoft and its channel to the cloud.

The RCMP

Heartbleed Computer Bug

In probably the most dramatic story of the year, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested a 19-year-old man from London, Ont. who is believed to have used the Heartbleed computer bug to steal 900 social insurance numbers from the Canada Revenue Agency. This arrest only strengthened the Mounties’ reputation of always getting their man.

Eric Gales

Country Manager, VMWare Canada

Thanks to the EVO: Rail, an all-in-one solution and complete channel play for VMware, Eric Gales returns to the spot on our list that he previously held at Microsoft. To many, the EVO:Rail could be the channel’s train ticket to the highly lucrative software-defined data centre.

Marc Dupaquier

Global Channel Chief, IBM

Dupaquier took the channel helm at a time when IBM is in transition, on one hand divesting itself of the x86 business to Lenovo while on the other making historic partnerships with Apple and Cisco Systems.

Mary Ann Yule

Vice-President and General Manager, CDW Canada

Mary Ann Yule’s goal was for CDW Canada to be the No. 1 Solution Provider on CDN’s Top 100 list. And, in 2014, the GM of CDW Canada accomplished just that.

Kevin Peesker

President, Dell Canada

In one major departure after the next from its former direct-only strategy, the Dell Canada president helped bring the company into the tier 2 channel space with major partnerships with Ingram Micro Canada, Tech Data Canada and to a lesser degree Synnex Canada.

CDN Top 25 Newsmakers of 2014, Part 1