SITS industry veteran Geoff Unwin is to become the new chairman of business process services (BPS) provider Xchanging, replacing current chairman Nigel Rich, who steps down on 31 December. Unwin will initially join the Xchanging board on 1st December as a non-exec director, before assuming the chair on 1st January, 2012. This appointment is very good news for Xchanging since it brings on board a real SITS ‘heavyweight’ in Unwin. It is also another endorsement of ‘new’ CE Ken Lever, and his on-going work to turn Xchanging around (see here).
Many HotViews readers will know Unwin from his days as the CEO of Capgemini Ernst & Young (Capgemini) and of course as the former MD and executive chairman of Hoskyns (where he was Richard Holway’s boss for 20 years!). Since 2002, Unwin has held a number of chairmanships across the SITS, media and healthcare sectors, including his biggest role since CGE&Y as chairman of FTSE100 company United Business Media until 2007. He was also chair of BPO provider Liberata between 2003 and 2010, until Liberata was sold to private equity firm Endless LLP (see Liberata under new ownership).
Unwin continues to chair a number of other UK-based technology companies, including social media search provider Taptu, technology investment LLP RD Card Holdings, telecoms software provider OpenCloud, and safety technology firm Halma. He is also a non-voting board member of Capgemini and an advisory board member of Palamon Capital Partners.