Maintel appoints Dan Davies permanent CEO
The IT pro become the company’s first permanent CEO in almost two years
London-based reseller Maintel has named Dan Davies as its new CEO.
The appointment formalises Davies’ existing position as interim CEO, which he took up in February 2024.
He replaced previous interim CEO Carol Thompson, who held this role since March 2023, when Maintel’s previous permanent CEO Ioan MacRae left the organisation.
Prior to becoming the company’s number one, Davies joined Maintel in 2014 as group product and solutions director.
He then made his way up by holding various leadership roles such as director of sales operations, cloud services director, software & cloud technology director, and CTO since January 2020.
That same year, he also became an exec director for the reseller.
His channel career extends back to 1998, the year he started working as a network administrator for Control Technique Dynamic.
He then joined Unified Group Ltd as an engineer, where he held various roles before stepping up as consultant manager five years later.
He left in 2009 for Proximity Communications, where he stayed for six years, starting off as a principal consultant and ending up as product and solutions director.
His mission will be to guide the company through its journey to pivot from a generalist to a specialist across unified comms & collaboration, customer experience, and security & connectivity.
“It is an exciting time for Maintel and over the past year we have made good progress in transforming both our market positioning and our offering which, I believe, puts us in an even stronger position to support our customers to service their managed service needs,” said Davies.
Clare Bates, senior independent director and chair of the nomination committee, added: “Dan has been instrumental in the ongoing transformation of the company and his shared values and deep knowledge of the business and its broader markets, position him strongly to drive Maintel forward on its long-term growth strategy and to take on the many opportunities available to the company in its journey as a leading MSP.”
The organisation said it is now on a search for a new independent non-exec chairman.
Bumpy path to a CEO
Davies’ appointment ends the company’s tumultuous search for a CEO.
He replaced previous interim chief executive officer Thompson to allow her “to focus on her role of executive chairman,” after she allegedly told now former deputy chair John Booth “that his proposal in relation to dividends would breach the Companies Act and would be in breach of the covenants with HSBC.”
In April 2024, Thompson was dismissed because of what the company referred to as “significant concerns regarding issues with leadership style, lack of integrity and the breakdown of relationships between [Thompson] and members of the board.”
Prior to this decision, “two individuals, including the new interim CEO” raised concerns about her conduct to Bates.
She later took the case to court asking for an interim relief, claiming she was unfairly fired for allegedly calling out unlawful business proposal that would breach agreements with HSBC.
Her request was denied on 16 May 2024 by London South Employment tribunal, on the grounds that the tribunal was not “near to certain or that the Claimant has a pretty good chance of success on this element of her claim.”
Maintel ranks number 49 in CRN’s Top VARs list.