Glasgow's Iomart makes 'sound choice' for new CEO after sudden change at top

Iomart, the Glasgow-headquartered cloud computing group, has announced the sudden departure of its chief executive Reece Donovan.

Iomart said its chief executive Reece Donovan was stepping down from the top post and leaving the company 'with immediate effect'. Picture by Peter Devlin

In a brief statement to the stock market, the firm said Donovan was stepping down from the top post and leaving the company “with immediate effect”. No further explanation was provided. He joined the board as chief operating officer in March 2020 and became chief executive in September of the same year.

Iomart added: “The board would like to thank Reece for all his work in transitioning the business through the Covid-19 pandemic and energy crisis while helping to reposition Iomart's managed service offering within the broader hybrid cloud marketplace.”

Lucy Dimes, executive chair, will become chief executive on a full-time basis, with immediate effect. A search for a new chairperson will commence in due course, Iomart added. The group is due to release a trading update covering the six months to the end of September next month when further details are expected.

Martin O’Sullivan, an analyst at brokerage Shore Capital, which has a buy rating on the shares, said: “Lucy brings experience in industries at the forefront of growth and technology-based innovation and global strategic partnerships, having been the chief strategy and transformation officer of Virgin Money, the CEO of UBM EMEA and CEO, UK & Ireland, of Fujitsu. She has considerable experience in complex, highly regulated international markets in product innovation, market entry, scaling for growth and expansion.

“In our view, Ms Dimes is a sound choice as incoming CEO given the aforesaid board level experience, her enthusiastic support of causes ranging from customer experience, technology, diversity and sustainability, and her inside knowledge of the workings of Iomart. It should also be said that Reece Donovan is leaving the business in a better condition than when he joined it, having repositioned Iomart’s managed service offering within the broader hybrid cloud marketplace.”

In June, Iomart stressed that it remained actively on the lookout for acquisition targets after posting record full-year revenues of £115.6 million, up 12 per cent, which reflected factors such as organic revenue growth in core cloud managed services, and its acquisition of Concepta last August.