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Watt takes Infinigate Group board position
Channel veteran will get the chance to bring his years of experience to bear and advise distributor on growth strategy
It’s hard to turn your back on the channel, and the chance to renew involvement in distribution has drawn Graeme Watt back into a distie boardroom.
The former Softcat CEO has taken a position as president of the board at the Infinigate Group, where he will get the chance to bring his years of experience to bear and advise the distributor on its growth strategy group.
Watt’s remit includes overseeing the strategic development of Infinigate and assisting the leadership team with hitting its goals. He was selected by the distributor and its majority owners, Bridgepoint.
Watt is no stranger to distribution, and prior to his stint at Softcat, he held senior roles at Tech Data and Avnet.
“I am delighted to assume leadership for Infinigate’s board of directors and help steer a very successful business through its next phase of expansion” he said. “There is a considerable opportunity for specialist, added-value cyber security platforms, and Infinigate has the expertise, business know-how and market reach to succeed.”
Watt joins at a time when Infinigate is looking to build on momentum and improve its market position. The firm outlined its plans for fiscal ’24 earlier this year, with the emphasis on widening channel relationships, particularly with system integrators and adding more vendors to the roster.
During the past financial year, the firm also deepened the focus on generating software and services recurring revenue. Software sales accounted for 70% of total sales, and software-as-a-service revenues improved by 25% year-on-year.
Supplier portfolio
Expanding the supplier portfolio was also a key plank of the strategy, with the distie keeping that going by adding Sophos and IronScales to the roster in the UK.
Klaus Schlichtherle, CEO of the Infinigate Group, said Watt was a strong addition to the brains in the boardroom.
“We are delighted to welcome Graeme as president of the board for the Infinigate Group,” he said. “He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to help us pave the way to our ambitious goals and shared success with our channel and vendor partners.”
Watt exited the Softcat CEO role after a five-year stint last August, moving into the position of non-executive chair at the firm.
Throughout his career, Watt has maintained a position that views the channel as rife with opportunities to expand its position and deliver support to customers, arguing in the past couple of years that security, artificial intelligence and data management all require reseller expertise and that users will continue to turn to their local provider to get answers.
