R-Com hits bullseye with ex-Arrow man Steve Pearce

Pearce joins R-Com as non-exec director as it aims for £40m revenues

Channel veteran and former long-serving senior Arrow exec Steve Pearce has taken on a non-executive role on the board of ambitious VAR R-Com.

In March, CRN revealed that Pearce (pictured) was retiring from his role at Arrow after nine years at the distie, and he has now headed to an advisory position of non-executive chairman at R-Com.

Speaking to CRN, Pearce said his decision to take the board role was driven by a soft spot for the channel's smaller players.

"After 35 years in the IT industry, in January I took the decision to retire after a long and rewarding career," he said. "It was a lifestyle choice and it was my decision. Fundamentally I am now out of IT, after having a very good run. However, I kind of adopted the R-Com team a few years ago when I was responsible for running Arrow and I liked the personalities involved.

"At the time I was very focused on showing Arrow that developing these smaller partners was hugely important for the channel. Over the past few years [R-Com] went from being a tiny customer doing a few hundred thousand to a well-established reseller doing several million. I think they are a good example of a small, developing reseller who is looking to embrace the change in how IT is delivered and really move their business forward."

Pearce said his new role is purely advisory, and involves him attending quarterly board meetings, but he will not get involved in the day-to-day running of the business.

Ajaz Rathore, R-Com's managing director, said Pearce's involvement in the company has given it a big boost.

"We are over the moon he has joined us; it clearly shows our ambition," he said. "He was [involved in] running a billion-pound-turnover company and we have convinced him to come on board. He has a vision of where he wants us to be, and he is driving us forward."

In 2014, the VMware, Trend Micro and Microsoft partner hit sales of close to £10m, but according to Rathore, R-Com is targeting revenues of £40m in the coming three years. He claims Pearce's arrival is going to help the company achieve this goal.

"Steve [Pearce] has come in and made a big difference and we are now looking at things like cloud that we were not looking at before," he said. "He has a vision that we didn't have before, which is that we need to get to around £30m to £40m in revenues within the next two and a half years, and I have no doubt in my mind we can achieve that."

As well as taking on Pearce, R-Com has also recently recruited Paul Fuller, who was previously UK sales manager at Avnet, as its new sales director.