Academia sees headcount swell to 100

Reseller adds 10 new staff in December and replaces commercial sales director

Reseller Academia has switched sales directors and taken on 10 new starters, bringing its total headcount to 100.

The public sector specialist signed up five new recruits to its sales academy. They started on 2 December, and will begin with sales and vendor training. It also added four sales staff, split between its public sector and commercial teams and took on one project manager, all recruited through an agency.

Mike Bacon, Academia's founder, told CRN the new recruits will add a "breath of fresh air" to the firm, and said recruiting 10 new staff in December is a record for any one month. He added that reaching 100 staff is an important milestone.

"I suppose we have been growing fairly steadily," he said. "A hundred feels like a particularly significant mark and sets us on the right foot to start the new year with recruitment in place, rather than having to go out and recruit in January. So it puts us on a firm footing for the new year."

As well as adding to its total, Academia has also seen the departure of its commercial sales director Jesse Westgate who has left to join cloud marketing firm SmartFocus.

Bacon said Westgate's departure was on "very good terms".

Replacing Westgate is Academia's previous public sector director Mark McCormack.

Bacon explained that it was a "natural promotion" for McCormack and said he will be a "strong" sales director.

He added that Westgate was previously running marketing for the group as well as commercial sales, and that McCormack will only be in charge of sales, with the firm on the hunt for a new marketing manager to take over these duties.