Exclusive: John Joslin to leave Computacenter

No replacement has been announced as Joslin is set to leave at the end of the year

Computacenter's Hatfield headquarters

After 21 years as Computacenter UK’s managing director of product, John Joslin is to leave by the end of the year, CRN has learned.

Joslin joined the firm in 1987, after it was formed in 1981 by Philip Hulme and Peter Ogden. It is not known what Joslin will do after leaving the company.

Mike Norris, chief executive of Computacenter said Joslin will be missed.

“John has been with Computacenter for 21 years and all but six months of that has worked directly for me,” he said. “Personally I will miss him.”

Norris was unable to comment on rumours that up to 50 sales related jobs were under threat in the firm’s mid-market division.

Computacenter is approaching its year end, with results due to be released in March, but Norris said he is feeling ‘bullish’ for the coming year.

“I’m pretty pleased with things and I don’t think the market has been too bad. We continue to focus on improving our return on capital and also on higher margins where we have less capital tied up. We have been lucky compared to a number of people in the industry,” he said.

“We have also produced some very good financial figures and our managed services business is extremely successful. Also our product side is taking market share. If I look at the history of the company since I have run it, we are the largest corporate reseller and we have established this position as the clear leader in difficult times.

“We grow market share in tough times and are then in a position to take advantage of that when things are good again. Right now, obviously I could be happier, but I’m pretty bullish about things,” he added.