Jones takes leave of Ilion

Julia Jones, managing director of networking distributor Ilion's training and services arm Faculty, has stunned the industry with the announcement of her resignation from the business.

Talking to PC Dealer, Jones expressed regret that she was leaving the distributor, but maintained that she was looking forward to working on an unnamed project.

'There is nothing negative about my departure as I have had a brilliant time at Faculty, but someone made me an exciting offer that I couldn't refuse. It has been a very hard decision to make,' she said.

Jones refused to comment on her plans but said she was hoping to reveal more details next month.

Rob Johnson, managing director of Ilion, said: 'Julia has done a great job and we are disappointed to see her go, but recognise that it is a great opportunity for her.'

However, he claimed the distributor had a shortlist of three candidates to replace Jones and he anticipated making an announcement within the next week.

Johnson also revealed that Duncan Hume, former sales director of TopLog prior to Ilion purchasing the distributor in 1995, will join Ilion as the general manager of the Unix division. He claimed this was Ilion's third most significant management appointment since he joined Ilion at the end of 1998.

Johnson disputed that a significant number of staff had left Ilion within the past three months, but conceded it had lost two important sales staff, Dave Norman, 3Com account manager, and Jason May, Cisco sales manager, as revealed in PC Dealer (24 March).

Jon Molyneux, UK managing director at Apple, will leave the manufacturer to head the UK operation of Scoot.