Telecity has announced that its longstanding UK MD, Adriaan Oosthoek, is set to leave the company. Oosthoek, who resides in Holland, will be departing after seven years in the role. He will be replaced by Rob Coupland (current COO), during a handover period in early 2013.
Oosthoek originally planned to take on the UK role for two years (following the merger of Redbus Interhouse and Telecity), commuting from Holland to the UK. However, after out-doing that timeframe by some margin, he has decided to pursue other opportunities.
He leaves Telecity’s UK business, which accounts for around half of the Group’s revenues, in good shape (see Telecity on track to hit full-year target). Given this, it is absolutely crucial that there is a smooth transition to maintain ‘business as usual’. Our understanding is that Coupland, who has been with the firm for almost six years, is not likely to make any significant changes to ‘current course and speed’ in the near term.
Moving Coupland into the MD role also presents Telecity with an excellent opportunity to restructure the COO role he leaves behind. The plan is to divide the COO role into two new positions: a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and a Chief Information Officer (CIO). Both roles will report directly to the CEO. The CTO will be responsible for data centre design and build, security, operational standards and for driving the Group’s environmental management strategy. The CIO will lead the on-going development of networks and infrastructure and systems development.
Once Coupland has had a chance to get his feet under his new desk, we’ll be catching up with him and bringing subscribers more insight.