Cisco boss ready to move on after less than a year

Nick Kandola, Cisco UK marketing director, has jumped ship after just eight months to join former Azlan colleague Mark Peters at recently established distributor Hyperchannel.

Kandola, who resigned on 15 April, was product marketing director at Azlan for seven years before leaving in August last year, just one week before Peters left as marketing director (PC Dealer, 20 August 1997).

Newbury-based Hyperchannel was launched on 1 April by Peters and Nick Smith, a consultant at Performance Management. Joint managing director Peters said Kandola will become managing director. Both will head marketing.

Commenting on his short-lived employment at Cisco, Kandola said: 'A number of factors influenced my decision, but mainly I wanted to work with a start-up company.'

He added: 'It is a bold move after working at a company like Cisco but Mark Peters has the investment behind him. Also, we have different skills that complement each other.'

Peters said he had been in discussions with Kandola about the move for a couple of months.

In a statement, Cisco said Kandola would leave during May when Phil Smith, business development director at Cisco, would take on responsibility for UK marketing until further notice.

Peters said: 'Nick wanted to work in a flexible environment and he will get to follow the ideas he wants to follow.'

Hyperchannel, which employs nine people, has already signed distribution agreements with IBM, Wall Data, Ascend as well as Digital and Cabletron.