New UKFast CEO hails 'multiple opportunities' for British cloud hoster

Rentalcars.com CEO Ian Brown takes the reins following departure of Lawrence and Gail Jones

UKFast's newly unveiled CEO says he sees "multiple opportunities" for the cloud hosting firm, whose founders Lawrence and Gail Jones exited last month.

Ian Brown joins UKFast after five years as CEO of fellow Manchester-based tech outfit Rentalcars.com.

He billed his appointment as a move from "the northwest's leading B2C tech business to its leading B2B tech business".

"The sheer pace of change right now in areas such as cloud, home working, and security all point to multiple opportunities for UKFast and its customers. I'm delighted to be joining the UKFast team at this exciting time," he said.

UKFast founders Lawrence and Gail Jones exited the business last month as private equity backer Inflexion upped its stake to 75 per cent.

Gail Jones had temporarily held the CEO reins after her husband relinquished the role following sexual misconduct allegations published by the Financial Times last year.

UKFast.Net Ltd's revenues hit £53.9m in calendar 2018, up from £48.3m a year earlier.

Brown went on: "Many people don't realise quite how large the B2B partnerships business is inside Rentalcars and Booking.

"Regardless of whether it's B2B or B2C though, the goal is always the same: take away all the hassles and anxiety, and just make it massively easier for your customers to do what they want to do."