Logicalis CTO Gabriel leaving to pursue 'new challenge'

Chris Gabriel to join Daisy after calling time on nine-year stint at Cisco Gold partner

Logicalis' chief technology officer Chris Gabriel is exiting the integrator after nine years, CRN has learned, and is set to join Daisy Group.

Talking to CRN, Gabriel (pictured) confirmed he is leaving in early September to pursue a "new challenge" after concluding it was the right time to move on following nearly a decade at the Datatec-owned Cisco, IBM and HP partner.

"When I joined, my daughter was two, and now she is 11. After nine years, you just feel it's time to try something new," he said.

Gabriel said the impetus to move was bolstered by the completion of several large projects since he was promoted to a group role in 2012. This includes rolling out a new services portfolio, "Optimal", which brought all Logicalis' life cycle, cloud and managed services together under one tool across the business. A new service-defined enterprise strategy was also created under his watch.

Daisy confirmed that Gabriel is set to join the telecoms services firm in the role of chief innovation officer.

"I felt it was time to have a crack at a slightly different part of the same industry," said Gabriel, who has also worked for SCC, 2e2 and Cabletron.

Unlike at Logicalis, which has offices across Europe, the US and Latin America, international travel opportunities at his new role will be limited, Gabriel said.

"I will be swapping São Paulo and New York for more UK-based clients, but that is part of the fun," he joked.