Paul Shannon steps aside as ANS CEO

COO Chris Hodgson also departs as former TalkTalk executive Rich Thompson named new CEO

A year after overseeing its merger with UKFast, Paul Shannon has stepped aside as the CEO of Manchester-based cloud and digital services outfit ANS.

Shannon relinquished the role last Monday, CRN understands, with chief revenue officer Rich Thompson crowned as ANS' new CEO with immediate effect.

ANS chief operating officer Chris Hodgson, who had worked side by side with Shannon for nearly five years, has also stepped down.

The duo's departure comes 16 months after private equity house Inflexion acquired public cloud specialist ANS for £200m and merged it with another of its portfolio companies, hosting outfit UKFast, to create a £125m-revenue, 600-employee firm.

Shannon was handed the Industry Achievement Award at last year's CRN Channel Awards. Ahead of ANS' sale to Inflexion, Shannon and his team "burned the boats" of its hardware business (it was previously the UK's largest Flexpod reseller) to reinvent itself as a public cloud and digital consultancy.

According to a company representative, Shannon and Hodgson felt it was the right time to hand the baton onto new leadership at the company. Shannon had been ANS CEO since 2017, and Hodgson the COO since 2018, with both having spent over a decade at the firm.

Both Shannon and Hodgson will become advisors to the business until the end of 2023 and will remain "meaningful" shareholders.

"They've grafted for many years and had put so much into getting ANS to where it is now. They did the deal with Inflexion, did a brilliant job with the merger and saw 12 months as the right time to hand over to a different team to take ANS to the next stage of its journey," the company representative said.

Thompson (pictured above) joined ANS as its chief revenue officer earlier this year after 20 years at telecoms giant TalkTalk Business.

"As ANS embarks on a new chapter in its growth and development, now is an exciting time to be taking the helm," Thompson said in a statement.

"I look forward to building on the strong foundations that the business has and delivering further product innovation and excellence."

Carl Wormald, non-executive director, added: "I'd like to thank Paul and Chris for their hard work in successfully completing the merger of ANS and UKFast. They have done a fantastic job and step back leaving ANS in great shape with strong future growth opportunities. I have every confidence that Rich will build the business even further."