CDN’s Newsmakers: the complete list

Time really flies when you are having fun. In my five years as editor of Computer Dealer News we have profiled more than 100 top executives in the IT channel.

The first newsmakers issue, which saw Corel’s then-CEO Derek Burney on the cover, almost never got off the ground.

People here at Transcontinental Media, which had just bought the magazine, believed it was a great idea but one that needed more time to develop.

I did not think so. I thought we could pull it off in a short amount of time because, as our readers know, you have to strike while the iron is hot.

This year’s top newsmaker was a real challenge because there were several big stories in 2005.

Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, probably made the most headline-grabbing announcements, but putting him on the cover would not sit right in this market. Still, netting Retek, PeopleSoft and Siebel in one year will go down in the annals of business history for Ellison.

Research In Motion was in the news a lot, but CDN is not Court TV. Meanwhile, Sun Microsystems and its newly -formed relationships with Microsoft and Google note rated deep consideration.

Then there was the historic Apple/Intel deal. Wendy Hayes, the much-respected leader of Apple Canada may not have had a hand in that arrangement but she did further the iPod brand to amazing heights this year in Canada. She also opened up the first Apple store in the country.

Ingram Micro probably made the most shocking decision this year, and if you put that together with the emergence of Lenovo in the marketplace the arrow pointed right to Murray Wright.

Congratulations to Wright for orchestrating his own comeback of sorts. I also want to give praise to Rick Reid, president of Tech Data Canada and Jim Estill, president of Synnex Canada and last year’s top newsmaker. After five years Reid and Estill are the only two executives to have made all five top 25 lists.

Narrowly missing out this year is two-time runner up Nick Tidd of 3Com.

Also missing out this year were people who make very significant contributions to the IT channel. Men such as Hubert Kelly of Nexinnovations, Jack Sebbag of McAfee Canada, David Allen of Intel Canada, Greg Milkovich of Samsung Canada, Hanif Mawji of AMD Canada, Jimmy Davlouros of BenQ Canada, Dave Fehr of CIPCC for his anti-copyright work, John Reid of the CataAlliance and David Hemler of Microsoft Canada.

— Paolo Del Nibletto