Like Allen, too, Zarek was once the kid, the renegade, among a bunch of slick old-timers: you know, the System-houses and ComputerInnovations' of the world. Now he's one of the veterans, a tag that makes him a tad uncomfortable (try asking his age and see how far you get). After 21 years in the VAR business, he can hardly elude such a label. Plus, everyone knows who he is. Zarek might come across as low-key compared with some of his outgoing peers, but don't be fooled into thinking he's a neophyte at self-promotion. As we all know, his high-tech integration firm rakes in $250 million annually, and yes, he has a PR agency. Born and bred in the heart of Toronto, the middle of three boys, Zarek now has four children of his own -- aged between 10 and 18 (the eldest is at Ryerson) -- and resides in bourgeois Thornhill, north of Toronto. His parents, who emigrated from Poland, "had no formal education," Zarek says. "They can't believe I've been successful. I was the son they were most worried about." He won't say why; perhaps they considered him too restless, or too independent. Whatever he was like as a child, by the time Zarek was in his 20's he'd completed both undergraduate and postgrad degrees in physics at the University of Toronto, never straying far from his birthplace. Nor has he once deviated from the line of work he chose in 1981.