Neil Hall says his desire to stretch himself convinced him to leave Computacenter to head up unicorn reseller Focus Group.
Having called time on his 23-year career at Computacenter, Hall starts as CEO of the SME-focused business comms and IT provider today, IT Channel Oxygen can reveal.
Serving 40,000 SME customers, Focus plays in a different space from Computacenter, which has a small number of large enterprise customers, Hall stressed.
“I never wanted to go to a competitor,” Hall said.
“Hg Capital approached me and told me about Focus Group. And it was the SME space, which was great because it was new to me.”
Calling time on Computacenter
Having successively helmed Computacenter’s German and UK businesses, Hall became President of the Hatfield-based giant’s North American arm in 2022.
The plan was always for Hall to remain in that role for two-and-a-half years, he explained.
“I could have stayed on a little bit longer, but I felt the guy we wanted as my successor [Justin Griffin] was ready, and I didn’t want to hold him or the team back,” Hall said.
“[Computacenter CEO] Mike [Norris] had also made some really good changes in the European structure, which just gave me a natural opportunity to take a look around and think, could I stretch myself and learn and develop, and do something new?”
Uniting with a unicorn
Hall’s arrival comes nine months after Focus Group bagged so-called ‘unicorn’ status when Hg replaced Bowmark as its private equity backer.
At the same time, Focus has moved to appoint former Content and Cloud CEO Peter Sweetbaum as its Chairman (with the appointment of Chris Morris as Non-Executive Director completing a trio of new hires).
The Shoreham-by-Sea-based outfit, which made 11 acquisitions last year (making it the year’s most acquisitive UK partner by our estimations), shares several similarities with Computacenter, Hall said.
“It’s highly acquisitive. We’ve done some acquisitions in Computacenter, some of which I’ve been part of – certainly integrating them and building one culture. So there were similarities there,” he said.
“Its two co-founders [Chris Goodman and Ralph Gilbert] have also stayed with the business all the way, which they have done at Computacenter as well.
“I met the co-founders, the investors and the leadership team, and it was such an exciting prospect it was hard to turn down.”
The Focus Group CEO role has sat vacant since Barney Taylor departed in the summer. He now heads up Air IT.
Hall said he will continue to hold shares in Computacenter.
“I don’t normally give advice, but if someone is pushing for it I would say ‘always stretch yourself and get yourself outside of your comfort zone’. And when I look at that I have to practise what I preach. I think I’ve done that in Germany, and with the US, and also leading the UK for five years,” Hall said.
“This [role] is different, but it also has some really strong similarities in culture, in the original foundership and the growth path.”
Judging by the below LinkedIn post from Norris (who on 1 January marked 30 years as Computacenter’s CEO), Hall’s claim that he leaves the LSE-listed giant on “very amicable” terms is more than just PR spin.
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
