Kennard jumps onto CU board

Industry guru Charles Kennard has become the latest director to join Computers Unlimited (CU) as the distributor attempts to shrug off its Macintosh image once and for all.

Kennard, who was managing director of Claris UK until the Apple subsidiary changed its name to FileMaker two months ago, was employed as a consultant at CU for six weeks until he decided to join permanently as sales director.

James Sanson, founder and managing director of CU, said: 'Charles is one of those people everyone knows and likes to do business with. He brings a wealth of experience to CU and I really feel we now have the strongest board of directors we've ever had.'

He added that CU was focused on creative markets and committed to a cross-platform future. 'In the past, we've been perceived as a Mac market distributor and Charles will help us dispel that myth. We start with over half of our profits coming from the Windows platform and the figure is growing. Charles is known and respected by the reseller channel and by suppliers.'

Commenting on his reasons for joining CU, Kennard said: 'After years of dealing with Europe-wide business, I wanted to focus back on the UK.

It's well known that CU staff are great to work with and the opportunity to manage a great sales team was a big attraction.'

Kennard was previously European general manager of Visioneer, as well as holding European manager of SuperMac/Radius. Last month, Alan Clarke joined CU as business development director.