Northamber founder: I'm going nowhere - for now
But David Phillips confirms that former ISI boss Peter Hammett is joining its management team
Northamber founder and chairman David Phillips has scotched talk that he is heading for the exit doors as new faces continue to join the distributor.
Talking to ChannelWeb, Phillips confirmed that former Interface Solutions (ISI) boss Peter Hammett will join Northamber's senior management team on 28 January.
This follows the appointment of a new HR boss, Ros Liard, earlier this month and the promotion of John Henry to managing director last February.
According to insiders, Phillips indicated to staff on Monday that he would be taking more of a back seat at the firm he founded in 1979.
Phillips denied this but conceded that the distributor is in the process of building a management team that can lay the foundations for the next 10 years of Northamber's journey.
"I am nearly 68 now and have no intention of coming here in a bath chair when I'm 75. I am very confident in the management team we are building," he said.
"I am still the executive chairman and still will be, I'm still getting paid and still own 60 to 70 per cent of the company."
Northamber has struggled to turn a profit in recent years, registering a wafer-thin pre-tax profit of £37,000 in its fiscal 2012. The distributor recently lost its contract with one of its largest vendor partners, IBM, as exclusively revealed by CRN.
But Phillips said he had no concerns about Northamber's near-, medium- or long-term future, stressing the fact that the distributor is a well-known name in the channel, is cash rich and has zero debt.
"It is tough out there, and we are getting ourselves in shape to ensure we are not a victim of the tough times," he said.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Hammett (pictured) - who headed up ISI between 2002 and 2005 and has also sat on Computerlinks' board - currently works for French VAD Sintel France.
Although sources told CRN they understood Hammett is joining as chief executive, Phillips was vague about the exact nature of his role, stressing that Northamber is "not big on [job] titles". But he confirmed that Hammett will not sit on the distributor's PLC board.