A female-led MSP has achieved a 50-50 gender split in its leadership team in a development it claims will hand it a “differentiated position” in an increasingly digital-driven market.
Wanstor this week appointed Candice Arnold as its Chief Revenue Officer, meaning its top team now comprises three women and three men.
Arnold joins an SLT that also includes CEO Francesca Lukes and Director of People Joy Breen.
Talking to IT Channel Oxygen, Lukes said efforts to increase the diversity of its workforce will help the London-based Microsoft partner more closely resemble its customers.
“I only know a few MSPs that are female led, but now translating that across our wider leadership team gives us a really differentiated position as I think about the evolution technology is going through,” she said.
“If you take the CIO role, the focus areas of traditional MSPs was much more on the infrastructure and network side, but it’s now evolving to be much more digital and data focused.
“The CIO is now being asked to improve customer service, maximise productivity and deliver all these business outcomes. So it’s really important technology teams reflect the diversity of this world.”
“I’ve been up against many egos”
Lukes acknowledged that Wanstor – which ranked 215th in Oxygen 250 – “hasn’t always done a fantastic job of communicating its message to the market”. Creating a CRO role will help amplify these efforts, she said.
Arnold’s CV includes stints at Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics partner Quantiq and – most recently – enterprise software outfit IFS.
“Fran has done a great job of adding an energy that is completely customer driven. There’s a hunger to help our customers succeed by using tech as an enabler,” Arnold said.
“I’ve been up against many egos, but I feel that, here, we aren’t ego led at all. There’s an honesty and refreshing clarity to what we want to achieve.
“There are 11,492 other companies (see here) messaging in a very similar vein, which makes it difficult for people to stand out. I see huge, untapped opportunity with regards to making ourselves distinctive in what is quite a cluttered managed services landscape.”
“We’re do everything we can to model and attract women”
With revenues of £22.5m in its fiscal 2023, Wanstor counts retail, charity, education and hospitality as its key verticals.
Achieving gender parity on its board also reflects efforts to ensure Wanstor is more representative of its customers across its wider business, Arnold said.
“It’s been quite hard to build up our gender balance in those technicial roles, but as we start to introduce more diverse roles in digital, they tend to attract more women,” Lukes added.
“We’re do everything we can to model and attract women into all of the roles at Wanstor.”
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
