Former ScanSource Europe boss takes exec job at competitor BlueStar
Maurice van Rijn appointed VP of business development at fellow US distributor
The former MD of ScanSource Europe has taken a new exec role at auto-ID distributor BlueStar Europe.
ScanSource Europe began to shutter its entire operations across the UK, Belgium, France and Germany in January and made its entire workforce redundant.
The distributor began to collapse after its sale to private equity firm Ten Oaks Group for $30m in November.
Its former European president, Maurice van Rijn, has now taken a new role at ScanSource auto-ID and point-of-sale competitor Blue Star effective immediately.
US distributor BlueStar claims to have 25 locations across Europe and boasts the strongest inventory position for point of sale, ADC and RFID solutions on the continent.
Van Rijn has a 31-year career in IT distribution and worked at ScanSource for the last 23 years where he led its point-of-sale and barcode business and then became president of the entire company.
In a LinkedIn post, Van Rijn said he was "full of energy" after taking a short break following ScanSource's collapse.
"Time Out was nice and needed but now that time's up! I'm joining the world's number one distributor For AIDC and e-POS solutions as VP business development," the post reads.
"Why? Because I'm not done yet, I'm full of energy, new idea's plus I love this business and my partners. BlueStar Europe is a fast growing company, making significant investments to support further success and committed to the AIDC & EPOS Industry in EMEA."
"He brings unique perspectives to the EMEA business environment. I'm so excited to work with Maurice as we continue to make investments to enhance our value-add and service offers for all of our partners in EMEA. The addition of Maurice to our executive team will have a significant impact on the scalability of BlueStar's expansion plans for the future," said Blue Star's EMEA COO Manel Barnanera.
BlueStar has taken on several former ScanSource Europe personnel over the last few months following the distributor's collapse. Regional business director Darren Pitt joined BlueStar over the last few weeks as BlueStar's sales director for the UK and Ireland. Sales manager Steve Pike meanwhile joined BlueStar last month.