Johannesburg, 05 Dec 2007
IT infrastructure, services and solutions provider, Datacentrix`s chairman, Gary Morolo, today announced the retirement of Gerhard Uys as the CEO, and concurrently announced the appointment of Ahmed Mahomed, current COO, to succeed Uys.
Uys announced his retirement to shareholders today and will remain in his position until financial year end February 2008 to ensure a smooth transition.
"Gerhard`s departure was planned and managed with the board; the company would have been delighted to retain the input and insights that Gerhard has amassed over the years at the helm of Datacentrix. The company wishes to thank Gerhard deeply for his leadership of the group and to wish him all the best in his retirement from an active professional life," says Morolo.
"After 21 great years with the business, I feel confident that with the current company performance and depth of management, the timing is appropriate for me to retire. It was an exciting ride to provide real solutions to customers and helping to grow people and the business. Our blueprint for a successor has been in place for a while. Ahmed has got the support of a very strong and experienced management team," says Uys.
Mahomed has been in the IT industry for 10 years; he joined Datacentrix in January 2002 as Managing Director of the largest division, Datacentrix Infrastructure business, and was appointed to the board in March 2003. Having successfully run the division for five years, he was appointed Group Chief Operating Officer and has been holding this position in the last year, with full responsibility for all operations.
Mahomed has a solid management track record; prior to joining Datacentrix he was Managing Director of Pinnacle Micro and previously held a position in the retail industry as Operations Manager with strategic management responsibilities.
According to Morolo, Mahomed`s appointment is the culmination of a long-term well orchestrated succession and transformation plan. "Over the years, Datacentrix has strengthened the management team, systems and culture and managed the graduation of the company from a founder-owner management culture to an experienced, professional executive team. The above changes will result in the Datacentrix board being 86% black and 43% female by 1 March 2008. In 2008, Datacentrix will celebrate 10 years of successful performance since its listing on the JSE Limited in September 1998. The board would like to thank Gerhard for his vision and leadership and wish him well for the future."
"Ahmed has a wealth of experience in management, his focus on financial disciplines, solid management skills, track record at Datacentrix and the respect he has built in the IT industry over the years were all important factors in our decision," Morolo adds.
Mahomed states that he will continue to execute on the strategy going forward. "We will maintain Datacentrix`s business discipline and focus on the basics while steering the company towards its identified growth areas, with no major strategic changes planned for the immediate future. Datacentrix`s focus remains on the South African market, with a sustained focus on best-of-breed solutions through partners such as HP, IBM, Lenovo and Microsoft."
According to Mahomed, specific growth areas targeted by the company include the selective outsourcing, managed print solutions, bandwidth optimisation and niche security solutions. He believes that local government will also afford a number of opportunities for the company, related to the need to build capacity to facilitate service delivery, as will the new wave of Microsoft technologies, such as Vista.
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