SHI hires Hutchinson to grow UK business
SHI has 'opportunity to grow lines of business into existing UK and European clients,' Hutchinson tells CRN as he lands UK MD role at international VAR
SHI International has appointed Donavan Hutchinson as its UK managing director, citing his track record of growing international sales for other US solution providers.
Hutchinson will be responsible for managing growth and operations for SHI's UK and European business, which ranked 13th in CRN Top VARs 2020 with estimated revenues of £280m.
His last two jobs have seen him spearhead UK green-field expansion for US resellers Paragon and PCM.
SHI represents a slightly different challenge, Hutchinson told CRN.
"I've always worked for large global VARs which I've helped expand into the international realm with growth through the UK and European markets," he said.
"What attracted me to SHI is not only their strong business strategy and leadership but their opportunity to grow and expand lines of business into their existing clients across the UK, European and international markets."
SHI's previous general manager Darren Brodrick, who confirmed that he has left SHI after nearly 17 years at company - seven of which he was in charge - told CRN: "I'd like to wish Donavan all the very best in his new role, he has a fantastic sales and support organisation and may the UK's success continue."
SHI highlighted Hutchinson's track record of growing US-based PCM's UK business from zero to $95m in two years ahead of its sale to rival Insight.
SHI has been in the UK since 1998 but its UK office currently employs a relatively modest 175 of SHI's 5,000 global staff, far less than the 1,350 and 800 UK headcount of US rivals CDW and Insight - signalling possible headroom for growth. It also opened an Irish office in March 2020.
"We're excited to add Donavan's experience and leadership to our team," said Celeste Lee, senior vice president, International Sales and Global Programs for SHI. "His proven track record of success in building sales and support organisations that achieve long-term growth in the channel will be a valuable addition to SHI growth globally."
Counting Microsoft, Dell, HP, VMware, Cisco, Adobe, Lenovo, Apple, HPE and AWS among its key vendors, SHI claims to have a global turnover of $11bn.
Hutchinson characterised SHI as a "leader" in the datacentre, cloud and software services space.
"The opportunity in the UK continues to grow and I believe that we have a strong platform and a great group of people to not only expand our portfolio of solutions and services into existing clients but also have the ability to go out to market to attract net new business in certain areas which SHI have not necessarily focused on in the past," he said.