CDN’s Top 25 Newsmakers of 2009, Part Two


Every year, the CDN editorial staff sits down to discuss the events of the past year in the Canadian IT channel community, and to select CDN’s Top 25 Newsmakers of the year.

In our first slideshow, you met the top five newsmakers that helped define the last year in the Canadian channel, from Nortel’s Mike Zafirovski to Sun Microsystems John Cammilleri.

In part two of our CDN Top 25 Newsmakers of 2009 slideshow series, meet newsmakers six thru 15, and learn what put them on the map in 2009.

By CDN Staff



#6: Loudon Owen, i4i

There are few executives more controversial, flamboyant and even boisterous than Loudon Owen, chairman of i4i, the Toronto company that successfully sued Microsoft and won.

I4i’s story this year is classic Goliath verses David. I4i won a court decision that ordered Microsoft to stop selling Word products in their current form in the U.S. The judge also ruled that Microsoft should pay total damages to more than US$290 million. I4i’s patent covers technology that lets end users manipulate document architecture and content.

Said Owen: “To paraphrase the great heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis, ‘they can run, but they can’t hide’. Microsoft’s time will eventually run out.”

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#7: Todd Thibodeaux, Comptia

Todd Thibodeaux, president and CEO of Comptia, the Computing Technology Industry Association, made it a point this year to reach out to businesses to increase its organizational memberships.

This time last year, the non-profit trade association for IT professionals and companies, which include distributors, resellers, manufacturers and educational institutions, had about 1,800 company memberships. Today, the association has over 2,100 members, Thibodeaux said.

“We’ve been focused on reaching out to all of the organizations that make up all facets of the IT channels this year to forge new relationships,” Thibodeaux added.

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#8: Ron Cuthbertson, The Source

As the CEO of The Source by Circuit City, Cuthbertson delivered consistent profitable quarters. But that wasn’t the case for Circuit City in the U.S. Circuit City tanked and filed for bankruptcy protection, and the Canadian operation was forced to follow suit.

Following the voluntary commencement of bankruptcy proceedings by Circuit City and certain of its U.S. subsidiaries, The Source commenced its own voluntary proceeding under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act.

Bell acquired substantially all of the assets of The Source for $135 million – which approximates the current inventory value of the retailer – plus adjustment for working capital.

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#9: Carol Hochu, Ontario Electronic Stewardship

Ontario’s IT channel community seemed to be taken by surprise by recycling fees ranging from $13.44 for a desktop computer to $2.14 for a laptop launched April 1st. There was a scramble by many in the channel to learn just what this would mean for their businesses.

Ontario Electronic Stewardship executive director, Carol Hochu, says the program has been a success in its first six to seven months, with 9.1 million kilos of e-waste collected and diverted from landfills.

“Obviously I have my perspective and maybe the IT community has theirs. There were some bumps in launch and implementation, but I think things are moving smoothly now,” said Hochu.

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#10: Fred Patterson, Symantec Canada

Fred Patterson, director of enterprise channels at Symantec Canada, said despite a tough economy in 2009, this year saw more business going through chanel partners than any other year, across all segments.

This was in part because partners are “becoming smarter” at selling Symantec solutions and are “doing a better job” demonstrating their value to the company’s sales organization and customers, Patterson explained.

“Value means margins,” Patterson said. “Partners that combine products and services into a larger solution have enjoyed greater margin because they can help save their customers money, while streamlining the number of relationships customers have to manage in the supplier community.”

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#11: Rick Reid, Tech Data Canada and Greg Davis, Dell

Dell’s distribution agreements were part of its global PartnerDirect program, which has more than 35,000 registered partners in 148 countries. Currently, there are just under 1,400 Canadian partners who are part of the program.

For Dell in Canada, a distributor such as Tech Data would offer best cost-effective way for the former direct vendor to capitalize on that demand.

By sourcing all IT solutions–including Dell–through Tech Data, Dell partners will have access to its entire solutions offering and extensive services, including billions in credit capacity, best-in-class e-business tools and technical training.

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#12: Jim Estill, channel pioneer, formerly of Synnex Canada

Estill was president and CEO of Synnex Canada and he left the organization at the end of May 2009. Mitchell Martin, the current president of Synnex Canada, took over Estill’s duties.

During his 30-plus-year career in distribution, Estill reached more than $1 billion in annual sales at Synnex Canada. He founded EMJ Data Systems Ltd., which he grew to over $300 million in revenue before its sale to Synnex and brought popular products from Apple and Acer to the Canadian marketplace.

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#13: Grant Aitken, VMware Canada

The company’s biggest product release this year, was vSphere 4 featuring VM clustering and agentless VM backup. It sealed an OEM agreement with Intel that would bring its virtualization technology to the mostly forgotten system builder community.

2009 also saw VMware completing its acquisition of enterprise Java vendor, SpringSource, a US$362 million deal designed to help customers build, run and manage applications to be run on cloud-based platforms.

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#14: Luc Villeneuve, NCR Canada

Luc Villeneuve has made growing the NCR’s indirect channel a priority since he took the helm of the Canadian subsidiary earlier this year.

While NCR had a good channel program it wasn’t as friendly as it could have been to partners, said Villeneuve. That’s why NCR is investing in the program and making key changes around programs and incentives. He’s also working to improve communication with and education for partners around some of their partner initiatives.

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#15: Kevin Krempulec, Kaspersky Lab Canada

Kaspersky Lab, a Moscow-based Internet security vendor, opened up shop in Canada last December and already, the company has experienced a 128 per cent increase in the number of transactions year to date, versus 2008, in addition to a 71 per cent increase in the first three quarters of 2009 in the number of active partners it has.

Kevin Krempulec, country manager for Kaspersky in Canada, said next year, the company will focus on expanding its channel base, particularly in Western Canada and the Maritimes.

“We don’t want to oversaturate the market because we want partners to add value and make money,” he said.

Click to read more.



Every year, the CDN editorial staff sits down to discuss the events of the past year in the Canadian IT channel community, and to select CDN’s Top 25 Newsmakers of the year.

In our first slideshow, you met the top five newsmakers that helped define the last year in the Canadian channel, from Nortel’s Mike Zafirovski to Sun Microsystems John Cammilleri.

In part two of our CDN Top 25 Newsmakers of 2009 slideshow series, meet newsmakers six thru 15, and learn what put them on the map in 2009.

By CDN Staff




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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

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