Computacenter MD Walsh: Why I resigned

Computacenter (CC) managing director Simon Walsh tendered his resignation after weighing up the short to medium term prospects for getting the role as CEO and out of fear of being typecast.

Walsh is ending his 17-year tenure at the service-based reseller but already there are noises from the recruitment sector that place him at the head of a telecoms giant or in charge of a growing networking business when his notice period ends.

"I'm not sure where I'll be going next," he told MicroScope, "I've loved every one of my years at CC but I want to think about my next decade of work and don't want to be so long at one firm that nobody [else] would ever employ me."

Sixteen-year Computacenter chief executive Mike Norris is not nearing retirement age and shows no signs of stepping down having steered the firm out of recession with a larger arsenal of services and higher margin sales.

"I've got a huge amount of respect for Mike, I've learnt a lot from working with him and I'd like to replicate that success but that is unlikely to happen to me inside CC in the timeframe that I find acceptable," added Walsh.

During the past half decade Walsh oversaw the services operation at CC and more recently the UK P&L, "these are general management and leadership skills that are applicable to any business".

"Some of my conversations have been with private equity houses because they have the ability to fund transactions but don't always have the ability to put in operational execs to run them. I am attracted to that prospect," he said.