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 #10-6.
Number 10
Mark Snider, EVP and global group president EMEA at Ingram Micro (top)
Bill Brandell, VP and country chief executive at Ingram Micro Canada (bottom)
By: CDN Staff
2016 ended up becoming a year of change for Ingram Micro Canada. The Canadian subsidiary saw its parent company agree to a historic deal to be acquired by Chinese conglomerate HNA Group for $6 billion dollars.
And, then midway through the year popular Ingram Micro Canada president Mark Snider accepted a promotion to be the Executive Vice President and Group President for Europe, Middle-East and Africa (EMEA) for Ingram Micro; making him responsible for all of those regions.
With this new role, Snider moved to Ingram’s Irvine, Calif. headquarters. Snider has been in charge of Ingram Canada since the middle of 2007 when he, along with Charlie Spano, became dual presidents of the subsidiary.
With that move came news that Bill Brandel, the executive director of advanced solutions would be overseeing the Canadian operation, reporting directly to Paul Bay. Brandel, an 18-year veteran of the distributor and a native of Buffalo, N.Y., mentored under Snider since 2010. Brandel would get the title of vice president and country chief executive of Canada for Ingram.
Number 9
David Farajun, CEO and founder at Asigra (top)
Eran Farajun, executive vice president at Asigra (bottom)
By: Alex Radu
After 30 years in the data protection software business, David and Eran Farajun, the father-son duo in charge of the Canadian vendor that is Asigra, aren’t slowing down.
In fact, as the company turns the page on its 30th anniversary and begins year 31, the two are looking toward the next 30 years, starting with an entirely new management team put together in 2016.
Eran, the executive vice president of Asigra and responsible for the company’s global expansion, marketing, business development, and long-term strategic activities, and his father, David, the company’s CEO and founder of the business in 1986 in Toronto, have been mainstays in Asigra leadership.
The two were joined by five new executives in 2016.
“2016 was a people pivot year if you will,” said Eran Farajun. “We have a lot of new brain power, which is very exciting for us as a business.”
Number 8
Mary Ann Yule, president at HP Canada (top)
Charlie Atkinson, managing director at HPE Canada (bottom)
By: CDN Staff
2016 saw the one-year anniversary of one of the most significant splits in IT history between HP Inc. and HPE.
Many pundits evaluated the first year of HP on its own a close to a home run for the corporate giant. The success of the HP split performed very well in Canada. HP Inc.’s Canadian footprint in commercial PC sales has become much stronger, the gap between HP PC sales and competitors grew by almost 15 per cent in the last year, and with investments into printing and copying, HP plans to keep that growth as they move forward. HP also pulled the trigger on a massive deal to acquire the printing business of Samsung.
Mary Ann Yule, the president of HP Canada, outlined a bold agenda to reinvent and amaze customers in 2016. She treated the situation as a startup; including the energy of a startup. As for HPE Canada, its first year without HP, saw the Canadian operation shine in the channel’s eyes. Partners saw the company become nimbler than before.
Number 7
Luc Villeneuve, president at Red Hat Canada
By: CDN Staff
Luc Villeneuve took the Canadian operation of Red Hat to another level in 2016. Buoyed by the Microsoft partnership that made the once fierce rivals pivot to the benefit of customers and channel partners; the strategic relationship was furthered in 2016 by Villeneuve. Microsoft is now offering Red Hat Enterprise Linux as the first choice for enterprise Linux workloads on Azure along with Red Hat middleware and cloud management solutions. As a bonus, OpenShift, Red Hat’s Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) that enables developers and channel partners to create and host scalable applications in the cloud, is also on Azure.
While the Red Hat/Microsoft partnership was high profile, Villeneuve did not stop there. He put the Canadian operation on a new trajectory in 2016. Red Hat now boasts partnerships with Cisco, Tata Consulting Services, Wipro, Dell EMC, SAP, Lenovo, Samsung, and QCT.
Villeneuve is doing his part to help the parent company reach its $5 billion stated goal.
Number 6
Bernadette Wightman, president at Cisco Canada
By: CDN Staff
2016 was another special year for Cisco Canada President Bernadette Wightman. She started the year off with a bang by opening the new billion-dollar Innovation Centre in downtown Toronto. At that opening, Wightman made a promise to place no limits on the number of partners, projects or special relationships at the newly opened facility.
Wightman, who moves up from the 7th position last year, said Cisco Canada is just using half of this centre at the time of opening and would like to fill the rest of it. “I have no problem asking for more investment to expand,” she said.
The Toronto Innovation Centre is one of nine Cisco Innovation Centres around the world.
Wightman is a true believer in diversity and committed significant dollars to that end in 2016 by introducing the Women Entrepreneurs’ Circle program. This program will provide women entrepreneurs with access to technology knowledge and resources such as the Toronto Innovation Centre.
