Entatech herds Shepherd into sales director role

Nine months after joining as head of retail, Alicia Shepherd is promoted as part of reorganisation

Ambitious distributor Entatech has promoted Alicia Shepherd to the role of sales director as it continues to evolve its growth strategy.

The firm revealed earlier this year that it would focus on four key areas: PC components and gaming; systems and peripherals; networking and connected home; and retail and software. Shepherd (pictured) was brought on board in January from rival CMS to initially head up the retail division.

In what has been a busy year, it also concluded a long-running saga with HMRC and completed a management buyout.

Alongside the product focus, the firm has been restructuring its internal teams, and Shepherd's promotion is one of several senior appointments; another being Pete Mulvihill, who becomes purchasing director of Entatech. Other appointments include hiring Arek Brzezicki as head of product management, and it has poached Dom Hoskins from Exertis to head up its Microsoft ESD and Entacloud business.

Shepherd told CRN: "This role is always something I've aspired to be, and I'm delighted. The first thing for me now is to strengthen the team and make sure we have the right people doing the right job. Obviously I want to give people the opportunity internally and allow them to step up to the plate, so I think it is going to be a mix of internal and external appointments."

She said that another task was making more of Entatech's online capability.

"Our rivals have said that ours is one of the best, and we have not done a good enough job of promoting that," she said. "We have the tools and infrastructure and now it's about making them work. I am very excited and keen to get stuck into the role and I know I can make my mark."

Dave Stevinson, managing director of Entatech, said: "Alicia has a solid track record of success and has the purposefulness to lead a proactive distribution sales floor. The past 18 months have been a challenging but rewarding time. We have invested heavily in systems to bring Entatech up to date and we are continuing to right-shape and upskill the company."