Empowered hires management duo following M&A spree

Channel services firm adds to leadership team following acquisitions of Convergis, OrderWork and Neptune

Channel services firm Empowered has beefed up its management team as it beds down the three acquisitions it has made in 2014.

The Sunday Times Tech Track 100 firm has appointed former Capita bigwig Kirsty Hepburn (pictured) and ex-Intact Integrated Services executive Tony Butler to the newly created posts of chief operating officer and chief technical officer, respectively.

The double swoop comes hot on the heels of an acquisition spree that has seen Empowered – which claims to work with more than 100 resellers and other ICT suppliers in the UK – gobble up three rivals 2014.

Having wolfed down wireless channel services specialist Convergis in January, three months later Empowered grabbed OrderWork, which provides VARs with server, storage, networking and desktop services. This added to its core skills around vendors including Cisco, Microsoft, Citrix and VMware.

Since then, Empowered has made a third acquisition in the form of unified communications and managed services provider Neptune Consultancy.

Hepburn, who has managed the acquisition and integration of "numerous companies" in her previous role at Capita, has been brought in partly to unify Empowered's four brands.

Butler, who was previously chief technical officer at Intact, will focus partly on implementing an ITIL best practice across the firm.

Empowered managing director Darren Liles said: "I am delighted to welcome Kirsty and Tony to the Empowered team. Our steadfast strategy has always centred on our ability to become a virtual extension to our customers' own capabilities and teams. Our recent acquisitions significantly support this strategy and have enabled Empowered to bring in some of the industry's best strategic and operational leaders, to help drive the business into the next chapter of its success."

Empowered placed 90th in last year's Tech Track 100 rankings after growing sales from £1.7m to £5m between 2009/10 and 2012/13.