Our weekly Channel People Making Waves counts down the top stories of the past seven days. We highlight the individuals behind the stories, this week featuring TD Synnex, HP and VMware.

We featured two multibillion-dollar deals — one acquisition that’s closed and another that’s rumored. These transactions exemplify the increase in capital floating around in the channel.

This week, one story seemed out of the ordinary from the typical cybersecurity we cover. It was the ransomware attack on a major U.S. football team. Ian Pratt at HP weighed in.

And finally, everyone loves a good story about upward mobility. Check out our No.2 most-read story about a new hire at VMware.

And in case you didn’t catch last week’s roundup, you can find it here.