James Hardy and Paul Barlow have been elevated to Advania UK’s top team as it commences its integration of their respective CCS Media and Servium businesses.
Advania UK transformed itself into a £450m-revenue-plus business last year by acquiring Servium in June and CCS Media in October.
Now the giant Microsoft partner has fired the starter pistol on its integration of the two resellers by unveiling a single leadership team across all three brands.
The new line up sees CCS Media’s former Chief Commercial Officer Hardy take the same role at the enlarged business, and Servium CEO Barlow become its Chief Revenue Officer (see their full briefs, bottom).
The full Advania UK leadership team will comprise CEO Geoff Kneen, Hardy, Barlow, CFO Andy Insley, CPO Thea Fineren, CIO Nick Isherwood, Client Success Director Des Hudson, Professional Services Director Pat Thatcher, Business Director – Mirus Dan Sharp and Products and Service Director Chris O’Brien.
“Working together has been easy,” Kneen stated.
“Everyone across the business has seen the additional value that we can now take to all of our clients, they have collaborated seamlessly and ensured that our clients are benefitting from the combined portfolio of services.”
Backed by Goldman Sachs, Nordic powerhouse Advania leapt into the UK in 2021 by acquiring Microsoft-focused MSP Content+Cloud.
It then made good on its pledge to acquire a similar-sized UK reseller business last year with its double swoop on £32m-revenue, Chessington-based reseller Servium and £280m-revenue, Chesterfield-based CCS Media.
Kneen confirmed the leadership shake up will spell the retirement of CCS Media CEO Terry Betts.
“We are very grateful to Terry and the whole team for building an amazing business in CCS Media. We all wish him well for the future and are pleased that we can call on his knowledge and experience in support of the ongoing success of the combined business,” he said.
Talking to IT Channel Oxygen about his big bets for 2025 in December, Kneen said his top priority is to roll Advania’s “deep service capability” to the enlarged customer base.
“If we see stronger market conditions, now we can take the breadth of service offerings to 9,500 customers I think we have the opportunity for hyper-growth,” he said.
Advania UK ranked 26th in the recent Oxygen 250.
The full integration of Servium and CCS Media is not expected to complete until later in 2025, Advania UK said.
A job for James
James’ role expands to cover the whole of the Advania UK. He will lead on both the strategy and execution of how we combine and take to market the overall portfolio of solutions and services. James will also oversee pre-sales and lead the ongoing development of our strategic vendor alliances, working closely with Geoff, other Advania country CEOs, and Advania Group CEO Hege Store to strengthen these partnerships across the group as well as within the UK. James brings with him 18 years of experience from his previous role as Chief Commercial Officer at CCS Media.
A brief for Barlow
Paul, who has been the CEO of Servium for the last 15 years, will integrate sales and marketing capabilities from all three businesses into one cohesive team, ensuring a coordinated and strategic approach to delivering services to clients. Paul and the team will be responsible for managing and enhancing our relationship with our existing clients and also acquiring new clients who can take advantage of the capabilities within the business. He will also lead on marketing and positioning the Advania brand and offerings in the UK market.
