Channel players revamp top staff

Several channel players have undertaken management reshuffles in the past few weeks, as they try to stem poor performance and spearhead expansion.

Several channel players have undertaken management reshuffles in the past few weeks, as they try to stem poor performance and spearhead expansion.

Leading the way is Ideal Hardware, which has announced four changes to its management team in the past three weeks - part of a major shake-up which began in June.

In the latest development, Ian Stephens has been appointed manager of Ideal's purchasing unit. His appointment follows that of Steve Lundy as finance director, Gordon Milner as sales director and Alex Tatham as commercial director and board member. Lundy replaces Simon Miesegaes, who will remain a director of Ideal and group financial director of InterX.

In another shuffle dictated by a restructuring programme, Kalamazoo has appointed Graham Parker as its strategic planning analyst.

Parker will help refine Kalamazoo's ebusiness strategy, as well as analyse opportunities brought about by the emergence of new technologies, the dealer said.

Computer 2000 has named Mike Bradley as head of its Cisco networking team. Bradley was formerly in charge of C2000's videoconferencing business unit. Nick Amer has replaced Bradley.

Imaging and network distributor IMC has also named a new senior management team to guide it through an aggressive expansion strategy. David Jones, co-founder and technical and operations director, has been promoted to managing director, replacing David Robson, who will stay on as chairman. Mark Boulton has been appointed sales and marketing director.

Meanwhile, the first head has rolled at IBM since the vendor issued its shock profit warning last month. Douglas Maine, chief financial officer, has been moved to head a new business group, TeleWeb, which uses the telephone and the internet to sell products and services to customers. It will help the vendor co-ordinate its direct sales strategy. Maine will drop his senior vice-president title.

John Joyce, who currently heads IBM's sales force in Asia, will replace him. Kakutaro Kitashiro, general manager of IBM Japan, will succeed Joyce.