Martin Hellawell: 'I'm looking forward to a new challenge with Gamma'

Channel stalwart talks to CRN about his move next month as his Softcat non-exec chairmanship tenure comes to an end

Softcat's non-exec chairman has told CRN he is excited to learn about a new area of tech when he becomes chairman and non-exec director of the board for unified comms vendor Gamma next month.

Martin Hellawell is set to step down from Softcat at the end of July, and take up the mantle at Gamma on 1 July. Current CEO Graeme Watt will take over as non-exec chairman next month as he is succeeded by Softcat's CFO Graham Charlton.

Speaking to CRN, Hellawell said his nine years as Softcat's chair had come round quickly, but he was ready for a new challenge.

"Under plc rules you can't stay as a non-exec chair for more than nine years," he said. "Gamma's chair is also coming up for nine years and they needed a new chair, so I thought it was a good fit. I will have just under a month crossover with Softcat."

Hellawell's track record speaks for itself - during his 11-year CEO stint at Softcat he oversaw the firm's growth from £57m turnover to a UK Stock Market Floatation and a turnover of £672m. He also holds non-exec chair positions at Raspberry Pi Limited and AIM-listed musicMagpie plc and is non-executive director of AIM-listed games developer Team 17 plc.

"For some reason I'm intrigued by a plc - there are not many left in the tech market now on the UK Stock Exchange - it is a relatively limited field after many have either merged or gone private," he said.

"I like the fact that Gamma is in an adjacent area to where I have normally played, and the comms channel is sufficiently different to the IT reseller channel which will allow me to learn lots of new stuff."

He added that the international reach that Gamma has was an attraction.

"They have an international dimension which I like, I didn't have that during my time as Softcat CEO, although that has changed since then, but Gamma has a presence in Germany, Holland and Spain which should be interesting."

Hellawell also added that he is looking forward to working with Gamma's CEO, Andrew Belshaw.

"As a chairman you have to get on with the CEO as it is an important relationship. I am confident I can use my experience to help [Andrew] and that we will work very well together."