Scottish cloud computing group Iomart makes further key appointment under new boss

Iomart, the Glasgow-headquartered cloud computing group, has appointed a chief operating officer to oversee day-to-day operations.

The appointment of Neil Christie to the position is the latest move by chief executive Reece Donovan who took the reins from long-serving boss Angus MacSween.

Christie’s appointment follows the recent announcement of a new chief marketing officer, Sharon Mars Leach, to strengthen the group’s brand positioning.

The firm noted that Christie has worked in the cloud computing industry for more than a decade and had been running the infrastructure as a service side of the Iomart business. He will report to Donovan but not sit on the main board.

Iomart chief executive Reece Donovan, who took the reins from long-serving boss Angus MacSween, has made key appointments within the senior management team. Picture: Peter Devlin

Donovan said: “I am delighted Neil has accepted this new position within our senior management team. He knows Iomart from the inside and has excellent commercial knowledge of the market in which we operate.

“We will be working closely together to enhance our structure and processes in order to deliver on our long-term growth strategy.”

Christie, who trained as a chartered accountant with PwC and jointly ran a web hosting company, which Iomart acquired in 2011, added: “I am excited to be working with Reece to take forward his vision for Iomart. I will be supporting the talented teams we have across the business and bringing together all parts of the group to deliver on our strategy of service excellence and further growth.”

Earlier this month, the group flagged further acquisitions but said the current lockdown had “hindered the green shoots of growth” it had expected in the second half of its financial year.

In a trading update to investors, the group said its strong balance sheet allowed the “proactive consideration of acquisitions” to broaden its skills and capabilities in new areas.

It noted that its revenue stream continued to transition away from self-managed infrastructure to managed cloud revenue.

For the year just finished, to the end of March, Iomart expects to report revenue of about £112 million, marginally down on the £112.6m generated a year earlier. Adjusted profit before tax is likely to be about £20m, compared with £22.8m in the previous 12 months.

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