ANS shakes up boardroom in services push

Howard Johnson and Richard Gascoigne to oversee professional and managed services, respectively

VAR ANS Group has rejigged its senior management set-up as it bids to execute a transition to being a services-centric firm.

Howard Johnson (pictured) joined ANS following its recent acquisition of NetApp partner Alpha, where he served as technical director. He has now been given a boardroom role at his new employer, after being appointed as professional services director.

As part of the leadership shake-up, ANS operations director Richard Gascoigne, who himself was elevated to a seat at the VAR's board table two years ago, assumes a new role as managed services director.

Paul Sweeney, managing director of the Mancunian Cisco, VMware and NetApp reseller, told ChannelWeb that the reshuffle was part of a wider three-year strategy to evolve into a managed services-led outfit.

"The back-end operations have more than doubled in size since we appointed Richard as operations director, so Howard's arrival has been perfectly timed to ensure that we are able to comfortably manage our growth," added Sweeney.

Johnson added: "The rapid growth at ANS has seen the professional services department expand greatly in the past few months. I will be making sure that we continue to provide the quality of service to all customers for which ANS has become well known."