The Top 25 Newsmakers of 2006 – Number 1: ATI/AMD David Orton
The CEO of ATI orchestrated the biggest deal in Canadian IT business history, giving AMD a bigger foothold in Canada. That’s why we chose him top newsmaker of the year
The Top 25 Newsmakers of 2006 Number 3: Tech Data Rick Reid
A new distribution centre in B.C., more TechSelect members and record revenues made it merely a
The Top 25 Newsmakers of 2006 Number 2: Northern Micro Herman Yeh
Until federal bureaucrats came out with a proposal to overhaul the procurement of printers, he was a relatively unknown head of an Ottawa solution provider. Then he decided he wasn’t going to take it anymore
The Top 25 Newsmakers of 2006 – Number 25: Broken Batteries
For Sony, recalls of millions of laptop batteries and slow PlayStation 3 sales made 2006 a year worth forgetting
The Top 25 Newsmakers of 2006 – Number 24: Frank Abate
Being acquired doesn’t always mean a happy ending. This VAR co-owner found out the hard way
The Top 25 Newsmakers of 2006 – Number 23: Netsuite Canada Marc Huffman
NetSuite Canada GM led the charge for the software as a service movement here
The Top 25 Newsmakers of 2006 – Number 22: Skydata Howard Goldberg
He pioneered value-added distribution in Canada for more than a decade, then sold Skydata to Arrow
The Top 25 Newsmakers of 2006 – Number 21: Novell Canada Ross Chevalier
Major updates were rolled out this year, but the big gest events took place just as 2006 was coming to an end
The Top 25 Newsmakers of 2006 – Number 20: AutoDesk Al Steel
The acquisition this year of a Canadian company has helped Autodesk fatten its bottom line
The Top 25 Newsmakers of 2006 – Number 19: Symantec Canada Fred Patterson
Channel manager helped to put many program pieces together and streamline it for partners
The Top 25 Newsmakers of 2006 – Number 18: Synnex Canada Jim Estill
A big acquisition highlighted his year, making the company dominant in printer supply distribution
The Top 25 Newsmakers of 2006 – Number 17: OnX Sheldon Pollack
He’s splitting the company he co-founded to save it. Now Pollack has to build the publicly-traded firm again
The Top 25 Newsmakers of 2006 – Number 15: BEA Canada Linda Whelan
She builts a reseller channel from scratch and mades a name for BEA Systems in Canada
The Top 25 Newsmakers of 2006 – Number 14: Open Text John Shackleton
The long-time Open Text executive outbid a competitor to get Hummingbird, but will the merger fly
The Top 25 Newsmaker of 2006 – Number 12: Cisco Canada Ross Pellizzari
This year marked the debut of new specialization certifications Cisco hopes will make VARs more profitable