QBS Software is “ripping up trees”, its new CRO has said as he opened up on why he opted to join the software distributor from Mimecast.
In a move that was trailed earlier this week, Tom Corrigan was today unveiled in his new role after seven years at the British email security vendor.
Before Mimecast he held senior roles at Avnet and Tech Data.
“I wasn’t actually on the market, but when the approach came there was so much I liked,” Corrigan told IT Channel Oxygen.
“Their track record of growth both organically and through M&A across EMEA was impressive, and when I spoke to one of my trusted, very senior channel confidants, he said, ‘Tom, the guys and girls over at QBS are ripping up trees’.
“I’m coming into something that’s been amazingly successful. I recognise that, but I’m going to find ways to make it better.”
“We wanted the best of the best”
Corrigan is the latest high-profile exec to join London-based QBS, which has grown its revenue runrate to $600m on the back of a string of 15 largely off-market EMEA acquisitions.
Having enlisted industry stalwarts Alex Tatham and Kevin James as non-execs last October, QBS unveiled former Softcat exec Charlie Heald as its CFO in April, and also snared the services Thomas Kasper and Oliver Roth through its acquisition of Prianto.
Talking to IT Channel Oxygen, QBS CEO Dave Stevinson said it took QBS around six months to land Corrigan in a search that was led by James.
“We had to drag a lot of the people we interviewed out of their role as they weren’t looking to leave, but we wanted the best of the best,” Stevinson said.
“We took lots of advice from channel nobility to get their opinion of what they thought about the various candidates.
“We are delighted with our choice of Tom.”
“Obsessive”
Corrigan announced his departure from Mimecast on LinkedIn last week, having joined the email security vendor in 2018 as UK&I Sales Director. In his latter role as Director of EMEA Distribution, he helped take Mimecast from a one-tier to a two-tier vendor in various EMEA territories.
Before that, he was UK Sales Director for Avnet Technology Solutions and then Tech Data.
Corrigan claims he is “obsessive” about the channel.
“I’m incredibly passionate, loyal, predictable and consistent in how I have managed my channel communities over the years and I’m hoping to bring along that capability into QBS.,” he said.
“I’ve got an expertise across technology supply chains, whether I’m having conversations with ISVs or with resellers, managed service providers or systems integrators – or whatever the partner type is. I feel like I’ve got a narrative that makes sense to them.”
Corrigan said his role as CRO is to take the business from $600m to $1bn revenues “as quickly as possible”, but “in an orderly manner”.
What is item number-one in Corrigan’s in-tray?
“This business has been extraordinarily successfully without me, so coming in and saying I’ve got an opinion on something that’s needle moving would be very arrogant,” he responded.
“My immediate and highest priority is to be curious, to listen and to absorb everything I need to know about this business so I can take informed decisions over the coming months and get my plan built out to take this business to where we want it to be.”
