CDW has promoted Penny Williams to lead its UK business as part of a wider local exec shake up, IT Channel Oxygen can reveal.
Williams was yesterday unveiled to staff as the giant reseller’s new UK MD, with her predecessor J.D. Hupp leaving to “pursue another opportunity”.
UK CFO Malcolm Pope is also exiting the NASDAQ-listed behemoth, an all-staff email seen by IT Channel Oxygen read.
CDW issued IT Channel Oxygen with the following statement:
“CDW is pleased to announce that Penny Williams has been promoted to lead our UK&I business, taking on the role of Managing Director. Penny has more than 30 years of experience in the reseller channel, building and developing high performing multi-disciplinary teams that deliver for our customers, partners, and suppliers. Penny is a strong advocate for gender equality, and has a proven record of accelerating business transformation and performance.”
Changing of the guard
CDW is the world’s largest reseller, with 2023 net sales standing at $21.4bn. Based on its acquisition last decade of Kelway, its UK arm ranked 5th in the Oxygen 250.
Popular industry figure Williams has been its VP of Sales UK for nearly three years, originally joining Kelway in 2009.
Her promotion means that three of the top ten largest UK VARs and MSPs are female led, in the shape of Bytes Technology Group (Sam Mudd), Bell Integration (Manpreet Gill) and now CDW.
Hupp had helmed CDW’s UK business since 2020 but had been doing the job largely out of his home city of Chicago.
Like most large IT solutions providers, CDW has had to contend with decelerating growth amid the PC market slowdown.
Its global sales in its Q2 ending 30 June fell 3.6% year on year to $5.42bn, although net income rose 7% to $281.1m.
Its Q3 results are due out on 30 October.
In a statement to IT Channel Oxygen, Williams added: “My sincere thanks to our CDW coworkers, channel partners and our customers who have reached out with such generosity, words of support and congratulations. It is a privilege to be leading our UK&I business and look forward to this new chapter.”
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
