Exclusive Group Transitions Leadership Team for Next Stage of Growth

Exclusive Group, the global value-added services and technologies (VAST) group, today announced Andy Travers as its new SVP Worldwide Sales and Marketing. The ex-Fortinet and RSA executive will be responsible for leading the next phase of Exclusive’s growth strategy to build the world’s biggest specialist VAD in cybersecurity and cloud transformation with targeted revenues of $10bn over the next 5 years.

The appointment coincides with the news that Exclusive Group’s current COO, Barrie Desmond, has decided to step down at the end of 2018 to pursue other interests. Affectionately dubbed ‘Disruptive Desmond’, he has played a key role in developing Exclusive’s go-to-market proposition, market positioning and sales growth over the last 7 years.

Andy Travers is a 25-year veteran of IT channel sales excellence, achieving success at reseller, VAD and global vendor organisations. As SVP of Worldwide Sales and Marketing, Travers will be responsible for steering Exclusive to unprecedented revenues, heading up strategic alliances with major vendors, developing key relationships with GSIs and taking executive control of global services. His previous roles include SVP and VP Sales positions on both sides of the Atlantic for Fortinet, as well as VP EMEA stints at F5 Networks and, most recently, RSA Security.

Commenting on the changes Olivier Breittmayer, Exclusive Group’s CEO said, “Following our recent investment from Permira funds we set ourselves high expectations for executing against our new growth strategy. Andy has the skills and experience necessary to contribute to us achieving our goals and understands our unique culture and values having been in the orbit of Exclusive working with our vendors and channel partners for many years. We are delighted to have him onboard.

“Barrie’s decision to stand down at the end of the year is totally respected by myself and the board. We’ve worked well together these past 7 years, architecting and driving the growth of this business and telling the story only we can tell. It’s been a great journey together and we wish him all the best for the future.”

Commenting on his appointment Andy Travers said, “Exclusive has earned a worldwide reputation for doing what no other VAD has been able to do – delivering genuine value-add at scale. I’m joining at a pivotal time for the business as we commit to exploiting the global opportunities around cybersecurity and cloud transformation to reach another step-change in growth. The investors and management team have developed a winning strategy and now it’s all about the execution. I’m delighted to be joining and really looking forward to helping achieve the next phase of growth.”

Desmond and Travers will work closely together over the next few months to ensure a smooth transition.

Commenting on his decision to leave Exclusive at the end of the year, COO Barrie Desmond said, “My work here is done. We’ve had an incredible journey and built a VAD that continues to disrupt, grow sales at an extraordinary rate and expand its footprint at an astonishing tempo. Along the way we’ve reinvented Distribution and redefined value. But now it’s time for the next generation of disruptors to take on the challenge of growing the world’s largest specialist VAD.”

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181004005109/en/