Former Insight and Misco vice president joins XMA

New boss tasked with boosting XMA's presence in the corporate world

XMA has appointed former Insight and Misco vice president Tony Brooker as its new UK corporate sales director.

Brooker (pictured), who left Misco in February, will lead XMA's corporate sector charge as it looks to expand its presence outside its traditional public sector focus.

Brooker's 18-month spell at Misco followed two stints at Insight totalling 11 years, with a two-year stretch at SCC in between.

"XMA has always been renowned in the public sector and in the competitors I've been in before you'd come up against them, primarily in education," Brooker said.

"Since coming on board I've discovered we've got a well-kept secret with regards to the profile they have within the corporate space. It's quite a small team, and the plan is to grow that out over the next six to 12 months across the four locations.

"That small team is contributing quite a large number to the business."

XMA's corporate team currently accounts for just over 20 per cent of XMA's total business, according to sales and marketing director Ian Cunningham, who harbours ambitions to have a 50/50 profit split between public and private business in three years' time.

Brooker outlined plans to expand the size of the corporate team, but said he is as yet undecided on whether the team will be dispersed across the reseller's offices in Glasgow, Halifax, Nottingham and St Albans - or based in one location. He also didn't rule out opening "a fifth or sixth" office down the line.

The underdog

Brooker spent four years at Insight between 2001 and 2005 as UK vice president, before leaving for two years as SCC's European general manager. He returned to Insight for a further six years as EMEA sales VP in 2007, before an 18-month spell at Misco came to an end in February this year.

Brooker, whose appointment comes after XMA snared Andy Wright from SCC and Kelvin Lee from the Crown Commercial Service, compared his role at "underdog" XMA to his previous positions at Insight and Misco, which both have more established presences in the corporate space.

The benefit to this, he said, is that he and XMA can control how they build up their reputation.

In its most recent financial report XMA recorded a year-on-year revenue jump of 52.6 per cent for the 12 months ending 31 December 2016, up to £358.5m.

"Misco had an incredibly strong brand presence in the UK because it had been trading forever," he said. "With a strong brand it generally opened more doors, but the role there was very difficult.

"I had two tenures at Insight that were about 11 years in total and in the time I was there the majority of the roles I had were that of a troubleshooter. I would go into any of the regional businesses, or take on a functional role that was perhaps not performing as well as it could.

"Ian and Lee [Hemani, XMA CEO], have a business and they're really looking for someone like to myself to come on board and say 'have we tried it this way? Here's my recommendation'.

"It's nice to be involved at the creation side of it, while we're not starting at zero - we're starting at a reasonable level to begin with - so I think I'm the most enthusiastic person in the business."