PCR’s 30 under 30 Revealed!

From retailers and resellers to vendors and distributors, the UK IT and tech channel is bursting with young talent. PCR rounds up 30 rising stars under the age of 30 who are already making a mark on the industry (ordered alphabetically by surname)…

ALEX ATTWOOD

Channel Key Accounts Manager
Panda Security

“Alex has worked his way up through the channel sales team, since starting with Panda Security in August 2017 as part of their graduate recruitment programme. Alex is now a key member of the channel key accounts team, which he joined last summer. He manages a number of key Panda Security accounts including veteran distributor Northamber, and partners Zones, Storm and Servium among others. Alex is described as a ‘valued member of the Panda Security team’, helping to drive ambitious growth targets across all sections of the channel from distribution, MSPs, resellers, and specialist partners.”

PHILIPPA BRADY

Product Manager
Exertis

“Philippa has been with Exertis for just over two years and she has made a great success of everything thrown at her, without complaint. Philippa has been an integral part of the team, taking on more brands, customers and rapidly expanding the business while remaining completely unphased. Philippa has almost doubled the business since joining the team, adding 96% growth to a multi-million-pound brand set. Clients regularly send in glowing testimonials praising Philippa for being ‘everpresent, diligent and flexible to their needs’. Philippa also received a special mention in this year’s Exertis people awards, a scheme that recognises employees that go the extra mile.”

JACK CASE

Head of Channel
CyberSmart

“At the age of 28, Jack has already gained great channel pedigree and experience which has helped him flourish at CyberSmart. Starting at CyberSmart in September last year, Jack joined the company having already worked his way up to channel manager at Heimdal Security. Jack’s colleagues describe him as having a ‘dynamic personality’ which gives him a ‘strategic edge’. He is particularly known for his ability to drive change within the sector and takes great pride and ownership of his role and responsibilities, while working extremely well in a team environment.”

RAMBO CHEN

Product Manager
MSI Computer

“Rambo joined MSI Computer a little over three years ago as product manager looking after the company’s motherboard and VGA offerings. With his desire for success, professionalism and deep market knowledge, his contribution towards MSI has proven to be indispensable. Over the past few years he has helped to rebuild and elevate MSI’s motherboard and VGA business. Rambo’s hard work has created a strong core foundation for the business, which has allowed and enabled fellow team members to continue building on. Ultimately, the work Rambo has done in the last three years means MSI’s business will be able to expand for many years to come.”

LAWRENCE COPMAN

Account Manager
Sherpa Marketing

“In his role as account manager at Sherpa Marketing, Lawrence acts as an effective and diplomatic liaison between vendor and partner, helping to get partners on the path to self-sufficient, excellent  marketing. At just 24 years of age, Lawrence is described as an ‘exceptional talent’ within Sherpa Marketing’s account team. Colleagues and clients alike describe Lawrence as a ‘pleasure to work with’ who makes a huge, positive impression both professionally and personally. Lawrence’s particular strength lies within his ability to deliver faultless channel marketing campaigns alongside channel partners.”

ROBERT CUNNINGHAM

System Builder
Utopia Computers

“Robert joined Utopia in 2015 as a B2B technician. His personality shone through in his interview and he gelled with the team straight away. He very quickly became popular with Utopia’s clients, and while still building his technical knowledge, he has shown an extraordinarily natural ability for fantastic over-and-above customer service. Over the last year, he has transitioned into one of Utopia’s key system builders, responsible for building some of the fastest systems on the market. Robert also provides valuable feedback to component manufacturers, like CoolerMaster and Kingston, on how to improve their future products.”

PRIYA DAYAL

Account Director
Sherpa Marketing

“At 28 years of age, Priya has proven herself as a bright, rising star within the UK IT and tech channel. In her role as account director at Sherpa Marketing, Priya works tirelessly to ensure her clients’ marketing programmes are delivered with precision and innovation. Her attention to detail, dedication to her role and her clients, combined with her fantastic energy, ensures that she always delivers strong results and exceptional marketing campaigns. Priya’s colleagues and clients describe her as ‘a joy to work with’, whose humour and wit is ever present in everything she does.”

FRANKIE DEYNEM

Product Delivery Team Leader
Comms-care

“Frankie quickly established herself as a natural leader within the team at Commscare even before officially becoming the project deliveryteam leader. Her ability to present forward thinking ideas is clear to see and, like any good leader, her communication skills are second to none.

Her passion and drive to ensure projects are delivered on schedule, within budget and to high standards is admirable. Nothing is ever too much for Frankie and her desire to give Comms-care customers the best experience is testament to her ability and proves what an asset she is to the company.”

MARTIN ELLIS

Service Delivery Manager
Agilitas IT Solutions

“Martin has only been with Agilitas since the start of the year, but has already proven to be a breath of fresh air. His positive and enthusiastic approach to his work, customers and colleagues make him a pleasure to be around. He has thrown himself into a very important and evolving client

account from day one and built strong relations and rapport with them and also his team. Using his previous experience in similar roles, Martin has immediately added value to the account and business. Martin has a ‘naturally enquiring mind’ which means he is always ahead of the curve in his delivery and ownership of

his role.”

ADAM FOX

Junior Marketing Manager
Synaxon

“Adam joined Synaxon as a marketing apprentice in 2017 and quickly took ownership of many of the digital marketing deliverables within the company. He juggled his studies with his job, quickly learning about the unique place Synaxon has in the IT and tech channel. Adam proved

his value to the company by identifying gaps in the digital communication strategy. Since then he has been instrumental in developing and implementing a solution for that, which has proven to be very successful. At just 21, Adam now owns and delivers a complex media plan, servicing multiple vendor partners and over 800 members.”

LUCY HOOD

Marketing Communications

Manager
Exertis

“During 19 months in her role, Lucy has transformed the internal communications department at Exertis by introducing and implementing best practice across channels such as employee emails, digital signage, posters and newsletters. Lucy has increased monthly newsletter views by over 1,000 unique views in a 12 month period and sees just under 10,000 visits to the internal SharePoint site each month. Lucy strives to ensure that internal communications are inclusive and informative to all Exertis employees by featuring a mixture of business news, awareness campaigns and wellbeing tips. Lucy’s marketing knowledge, creative flair and passion for her roleshines through in everything she does.”

HANNAH HUTCHINSON

Vendor Alliances Executive
eacs

“Since joining eacs five years ago, Hannah has become a vital cog in the firm’s partner and alliances team. Hannah has embraced extra responsibility during the last 18 months, as a result of the long-term sickness absence of eacs head of marketing & alliances. This has involved Hannah working with partners for eacs Optimise IT event which attracts over 1,000 guests. Hannah played a key role, with limited previous exposure or experience, in ensuring that eacs were able to get the right vendors and presenters signed up early to ensure that we were able to maximise their exposure to registered delegates.”

KATARINA KROGER

Marketing Manager
SHE Technology

“Katharina joined SEH technology as marketing manager in January after completing her marketing degree at Southampton Solent University. In this role, she is solely responsible for overseeing and coordinating the marketing strategies of both the UK and US markets. In a short period of time, she has already achieved great success by increasing the presence of key brand messages and improving media exposure with regular content creation and press engagement. Katharina has also been fundamental in guiding the company’s strategic direction and preparing marketing messages during this period of global uncertainty due to the Covid-19 pandemic.”

JACK LEGATE

Senior Sales Channel Manager
Seagate Technology

“Jack started at Seagate in 2017 and in under three years has been promoted to a senior sales role and now manages some of the biggest accounts in the EMEA region. Under his management, sales growth continues on an upward trajectory. He is also part of the site management team in the UK and contributes to Seagate’s social committee. Jack was the face of our Seagate UK channel training videos this year where he explains in layman’s terms some of Seagate priority products to enable channel partners to resell effectively. Jack is described as a ‘keen learner’, who continues to grow from strength to strength.”

RIVER LEMONZIK

Partner Account Manager
Arcserve

“River has been with Arcserve for a little over a year as a partner account manager, looking after the north of the UK and Ireland in support of EMEA’s largest reseller Softcat. He worked alongside account director Anthony Parry to grow revenues by over 100% from the previous year, in excess of $3m for the last financial year. In terms of his own targets, River completely surpassed expectations and achieved 119% of his target. He’s developed key relationships and shown a committed effort to growing partner margins that ultimately played a vital role in achieving record success.”

RICHARD MACKEY

BSC Marketing Executive
BenQ

“Only three years into his marketing career and six months into a role at BenQ, Richard has already made an impact in the world of technology. Joining BenQ in January 2020, he was quickly challenged with rapidly deploying a new marketing strategy to correspond with changes to the business caused by the global pandemic. Richard’s cross-industry experience, attained early on in his career, has allowed BenQ to make effective marketing decisions confidently and diligently in a time of great uncertainty. BenQ saw a spike in its sales as a direct result.”

SOPHIA MEOLA

Content Marketing Manager
Expandi Digital

“With more than five years’ experience in marketing within the technology sector, Sophia is already a multi-award-winning marketeer. She is also a social media influencer and is now using her experience to mentor fellow rising stars and support women within the IT and technology channel. Having previously worked at distributor Ingram Micro, Sophia has transferred her skills and experience to her role at Expandi Digital. Sophia describes herself as ‘highly creative, enthusiastic and incredibly hardworking’. She specialises in content and social media marketing, as well as influencer marketing, PR, SEO and analytics.”

DARRYL MERKLI

Head of Creative and Digital Services
Ingram Micro

“At 25 years of age, Darryl has proven himself to be an outstanding professional, who has great marketing skills expertise, is fantastic at relationship building and brings astute business acumen to the virtual table. He is a highly creative and innovative individual who always brings out the best in the people around him. Darryl’s colleagues describe him as ‘a self-driven marketeer, with a teamwork spirit’ able to deliver results with ‘intelligence, calm and confidence’. Darryl’s contribution to Ingram Micro’s marketing department has led to significant improvements in the company’s go-tomarket offerings, with ingenuity and business intelligence at the core.”

CASSIE NEWMAN

Channel Marketing Lead – Northern Europe
Seagate Technology

“Since joining Seagate in 2018, Cassie has risen through the ranks to a lead role for regional channel marketing. During her short time at Seagate, Cassie has effectively managed many structural changes internally and has successfully recruited to grow the Northern Europe team.

With a focus on the surveillance and enterprise segments, Cassie managed IFSEC 2019 successfully and delivered one of Seagate’s biggest UK surveillance event campaigns to date – she was awarded Best Surveillance Marketeer 2019 for her efforts. Cassie is described as a ‘highly driven and ambitious team leader’.”

JESSIE O’HIGGINS

Product Manager
Exertis

“Jessie joined Exertis after successfully coming through the graduate scheme. Over the last 18 months, Jessie has undergone a complete transformation and she is now owning and driving one of Exertis’ most important vendor relationships. Jessie is responsible for the brand, its acquisitions and channel transformation, and has more than doubled the business year-on-year. On top of this, Jessie has also just completed her Training Managers of the Future Course (UPGRADE) – a structured programme of development covering a wide range of topics such as finance, project management, coaching and performance management.”

LIAM PARKINSON

Managing Director
Turopium Sports & Entertainment

“Having worked with some of the biggest tech and media companies in the world, including Google, BBC and Twitch, Liam founded influencer management agency Turopium Sports & Entertainment at the start of the year. Liam has already signed 15 of the largest gaming creators in the world in their respective niches. In the short time the business has been operating Turopium has collaborated with brands such as LG, Epic Games Huawei, Logitech, 2K Games, Amazon Games Studio and Elgato Gaming, generating six-figure revenue in less than five months.”

TIM PEARSON

Customer Support Coordinator
Agilitas IT Solutions

“Tim has natural customer service skills and embraces everything that is passed onto him. He has proven to be fastidious, adaptable and always keen to learn, as well as being an incredibly friendly and approachable colleague. He sees things clearly and can articulate issues to his peers, whether they are senior or junior to him. He instils confidence in the customer and end-user, and provides them with fantastic, dedicated support. Tim is understanding and gives guidance to all members of the team regardless of their job title, making him an invaluable member of the team.”

KATIE PINNOCK

Senior Sales Account Manager Northern Europe
AMD

“In the two years since Katie joined AMD she has demonstrated a positive enthusiasm and determination, which has helped to develop and grow relationships with partners to deliver industry leading products to customers. Katie joined AMD in 2018 and in the past year she has been instrumental in driving the success of AMD’s flagship products including its Ryzen processors and Radeon graphics cards in the Northern Europe region. At the age of 27, Katie has already cemented her position as AMD’s senior sales manager and she has big plans for 2020 and beyond.”

WILLIAM ROBINSON

Logistics Team Leader
Cameo

“Since joining the company in November 2019, William has shown how nothing is beyond his reach. He joined as logistics team leader but constantly goes above and beyond what is necessary, which is testament to his drive and determination. He has developed new processes and ways of working to ensure all logistics are efficient and watertight. William has managed and delivered an entirely new service offering for Cameo, spending many hours inside and outside of work developing and perfecting the model for asset repairs and now oversees it from start to finish. William is always thinking outside of the box to develop streamlined processes to ensure Cameo customers are 100% satisfied.”

KENDRA ROGERS

Insight & Strategy Director
PS London

“In her role as insight & strategy director for PS London, Kendra acts as the strategic lead for all marketing across a wide array of tech clients. She brings a wealth of experience having previously worked for global, blue-chip tech companies to provide marketing campaigns on topics including quantum-inspired computing technology, robotic process automation, artificial intelligence, payments management and cyber-fraud. She describes herself as having ‘a passion for crafting big, brave ideas, telling the truth, and creating marketing strategies with heart’.”

OLI TUCKER

Head of Design
EZVIZ & Hikvision

“At 29 years of age, Oli has already shown what an incredible talent he is. His production skills and design work have elevated both brands to another level, both digitally and physically with the work Oli has put in to rejuvenate in-store displays. Oli has a raw talent for design that he has developed across similar roles at other companies and he continues to draw on that talent and experience in his current job. In a crowded retail space, it is more important than ever to make security products and brands stand out from the crowd; Oli delivers on this with total dedication and results.”

TAMARA UNGAR

Corporate Communications Manager
Kaspersky

“Since joining Kaspersky in 2019, Tamara has proven herself to be a valuable and innovative member of the team, spearheading a transformation of communication about the business, future technologies, and the wider cybersecurity industry in the UK and Ireland. Drawing upon her

broad and varied prior experience across multiple industries, Tamara delivers a unique perspective on cyber security concepts. Tamara’s media pitches have resulted in coverage across national publications, including Sky News, The DailyMail, The Telegraph, SC Magazine and WIRED.”

SCOTT WALKER

UK Operations and Technical Support Team
HANNspree

“As Scott’s knowledge and experience within HANNspree has expanded so has his ever-evolving role. He has become a major advocate for the brand, especially in the gaming world, where Scott is now the voice of HANNspree’s gaming displays. Most recently, Scott has played a pivotal role in helping to support customers with the technicalities of new hardware installations for HANNspree’s touch solutions, a large vertical market that HANNspree is rapidly expanding in. Scott’s practical skills have had a vast influence on several aspects of day-to-day business.

LEONARD YANG

Business Strategy & Development Manager
TP-Link

“Leonard has risen through the ranks at TP-Link since joining as a management trainee in 2016. In the four years since, Leonard has taken on several critical operational roles to fully understand the complexities and interdependencies of each department. After just 12 months he became business strategy & development manager taking responsibility for channel development, pricing, product ranges, stock planning and promotion design for the UK. Working closely with the sales, technical and marketing departments, he has successfully implemented campaigns that have delivered new customers and increased the value of existing customers to the business.”

HANNA ZEMZAM

Event Manager
EZVIZ & Hikvision

“As shown with her presence in the PCR Women of the Year shortlisting already this year, Hannah remains one of the most talented event managers in the IT and tech channel. Her colleagues describe her as having ‘exceptional attention to detail and organisational skills’. Hannah oversees EZVIZ & Hikvision events, which attract thousands of people. On top of this each event can have more than 50 staff to manage. The lead in time for these events can be as long as nine months, however Hannah’s future planning, logistics and decisiveness ensures all events run as smoothly as possible.”

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