technologyreseller.co.uk 25 What advice would you give a young person considering a career in IT? Don’t chase job titles, chase learning. Find roles where you’re just slightly out of your comfort zone, surrounded by people who are better than you at something. And remember, the channel is a fantastic place to build a career; you get exposure to vendors, distributors and partners, and you learn how the whole ecosystem actually works. What’s on your playlist at the moment? My algorithm has been destroyed by my daughter taking over Spotify every time we’re in the car. Tyler, The Creator is currently on non-stop repeat! I have to say I’m liking it a lot and I can at least pretend that I’m still down with the kids. My own go-to playlist is a curated mix, from 60s funk and soul all the way through to 2000s dance music! What’s the most used app on your phone and why? Probably Teams or Slack for work, and Spotify for everything else. My phone is basically a mobile office and a jukebox with email attached. How do you like to spend your spare time? Family time first – usually being outnegotiated in discussions with my daughter. Beyond that, I’m happy with a good book, learning Greek (very slowly) and the occasional escape to somewhere with decent coffee and no meetings. Favourite holiday destination? We try to go to Greece a couple of times a year. I love the sunshine, food and relaxed atmosphere and if I ever do need to disconnect, relax and switch off it’s effortless. It’s my happy place. www.objectfirst.com Technology Reseller Awards 2026 Meet the judges Many thanks to everyone who submitted entries to the Technology Reseller Awards 2026. Your hard work is done and now it is the turn of the judges to burn the midnight lamp, assess the many entries we have received and select those they think most deserving of a 2026 Technology Reseller Award. The short-list for each award category is due to be published on April 9, so mark that date in your diary and keep your fingers crossed. In the meantime, voting is still open for the Technology Reseller Distributor Awards, decided by you, our readers. Don’t forget to vote for your favourite distributor in each category before the deadline of April 1. It only takes a minute at https://technologyresellerawards.co.uk/ vote/2026. As ever, we are very grateful to our judging panel for giving up their time to read through, factcheck and score all your entries. We take pride in running a completely objective awards programme and we can only do that with the support of industry experts who combine in‑depth industry knowledge with unimpeachable impartiality. In particular, we are indebted to Adrian Barnard who has once again taken on the role of Chairman of the Judges to ensure the whole judging process runs smoothly. Many thanks to Adrian and to this year’s judging panel for being so generous with their time. Chairman of the Judges Adrian Barnard, Chairman, TRA Judges Adrian is an awardwinning TMT & ICT entrepreneur and a well known industry contributor and face of the industry on TV news & radio for all matters TMT. Having built, exited & run companies in the £1m to £50m range, Adrian is now involved in several successful UK tech start-ups and high-level lobbying for the TMT sector. The Judges Graham Bunting, Connecting you to valuable ecosystems, Trust Partner Services Graham started in channel sales in 1993 when he joined SDX Business Systems, a recent MBO from STC. His time with the company included an IPO in 1997, acquisition by Lucent Technologies and later spin-off to form Avaya. As Graham says, what a ride. Graham describes himself as an instinctive collaborator with a passion for partnerships and teamwork. This extends to his love of Rugby Union, notably Leicester Tigers and the England national team. Harry Cheema, CEO, Sphere Global Solutions With over 20 years in the telecommunications industry, Harry has built his career around driving transformation, operational excellence and lasting customer partnerships. Starting out in the early days of network and service operations, Harry has worked alongside some of the UK’s leading telecom providers, helping them modernise, scale and evolve through periods of immense technological change. Today, as CEO of Sphere Global Solutions, he leads a team that supports global telcos and enterprises with managed services, NOC operations and continued...
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