Ampito eyes £250m revenue goal under new CEO Angela Whitty

Having called time on her seven-year stint running Cisco’s UK&I channel, Whitty has been tasked with growing Ampito into a £250m-revenue outfit

Former Cisco UK&I channel boss Angela Whitty has left the networking giant to head up one of its most ambitious partners in the shape of Crawley-based IT solutions provider Ampito Group.

Talking to CRN, Whitty said taking the CEO role at Ampito represented a "compelling opportunity" following a total of 29 years at Cisco, the last seven of which were spent as MD of UK&I partner sales.

"Having been part of the vendor space for so many years, it intrigued me what it would be like on other side," she explained.

The Cisco, Fortinet, Dell and HP partner harbours aspirations to grow revenue billings from a current level of about £100m to around £250m over the next five years, Whitty said.

"Ampito is built on being customer first, and great customer care. That's what I observed in my position leading the Cisco partner organisation, and it's certainly what I've observed in my first three days here."

Founded in 2006 by Manny Pinon, Ampito currently employs around 70 staff in offices in Gatwick, New York, Paris, Hong Kong and Singapore. Although it grew from multiple brands including Vanix, Redvue and Appcelerate, the Ampito brand itself now takes centre stage, Whitty said.

Whitty's background makes her well placed to bring in the kind of experience across sales, operations and services that Ampito is seeking to help it grow, according to the company. The emphasis is now on deeping core tier-one vendor relationships and "continuous improvement" of customer service.

"There are aspirations to grow the business, hence the leadership refresh. Manny is still very much engaged, but wants to focus on new-business acquisition. He'll be looking at acquisitions where appropriate, but a lot of the growth will be organic," Whitty explained.

Despite suddenly competing against some of the partners she previously managed, Whitty stressed that those she has sounded out have all been "hugely supportive" of the move.

"The great thing about the channel community is that, while everyone competes, there is also a lot of collaboration. It was a really tough decision to leave but it was such a compelling opportunity."

Running Cisco's UK&I channel was "by far my favourite role at Cisco", Whitty added, emphasising that the focus was not just on sales but also working with a "community built on trying to do good".