Dashing man-about-the-industry, David Courtley, has stepped back up a gear to take over as CEO of infrastructure support services group, Phoenix IT Group in August. The news comes just a month after Courtley took a NED position (and stake) at ITSA-cum-system house, Parity Group (see Courtley joins Parity board and takes a slice of the action). Phoenix’s long time (twice) CEO and deputy chairman Nick Robinson will step down at the end of the month, though he will keep his 6% shareholding. Phoenix chairman Peter Bertram will then go non-exec.
Courtley has an interesting challenge with Phoenix. His background is mainly with mega-sized IT services players such as EDS and Fujitsu, which sets him in good stead to oversee Phoenix’s core Partner Services business, whose clients are large SIs and outsourcers. But what he’ll make of Phoenix’s recently reorganised mid-market division is more the question. This itself is the proverbial ‘business of two halves’ which are trying to act as one (see Phoenix: the highs and lows of the cloud).
Frankly I think Phoenix will be demanding 100% of Courtley’s attention for quite some time, so I assume that his NED activities at Parity and also at Martyn Ratcliffe’s outsourced R&D venture Sagentia, and Sopra's recent software spin-out, Axway, will be scheduled on weekends and holidays. But of course we do wish both him and Robinson well.