Northamber's Smith ends four-year stint

Distribution Commercial director to steer fresh waters in channel.

Northamber suffered the loss of its commercial director last week, when Paul Smith resigned on 8 January because he wanted to find a position at a vendor or reseller.

Smith joined Northamber in early 1995 as divisional manager, before being promoted to commercial director in March 1996 and then to Northamber's main board one year later.

Talking to PC Dealer, Smith said: 'I have been here more than four years, which is a long time at Northamber, especially at senior management level. I've learned a lot about what goes on between manufacturers and resellers. It was this area that was alien to me when I first joined.'

Smith previously owned a Var, which he sold to Erskine House in 1995 for a substantial sum of money. He said he had to offer his resignation in order not to compromise his position as director of a publicly listed, trade-only distributor.

'I felt it was appropriate for me to resign first and look second,' added Smith. He claimed he had not decided which sector of the channel he wanted to work into, but indicated he expected to conclude a deal with a prospective employer within a few weeks.

During Smith's employment at Northamber, he set up the CTI division in addition to running the networking division and AS/400 business. Northamber's channel assembly operation also reported to Smith.

In a separate development, Colin Thompson has resigned as non-executive director of Northamber. It was understood he left because of the Cadbury voluntary code of practice which states non-executive directors should not be employees at the same company for which they are a non-executive director. Thompson has stepped down so that a fully independent non-executive director can join Northamber's board.

The resignations coincided with Northamber's share price dropping 9p on 8 January to 154p. On 11 January, the drop continued with a further 8p fall to 146p to finish at 150p. During the first 11 days of trading in 1999, Northamber's share price high was 171.5p.