UPDATED: Leigh Howard joins WhiteGold Solutions

Specialist distributor, WhiteGold Solutions, has acquired the talents of industry veteran, Leigh Howard, as a strategic consultant.

Howard, who recently vacated his position as managing director at Westcon Group, has been given a five-point remit in his new role:

• To assist in strengthening the existing business with strategic reviews on sales and marketing, administration, operations and logistics and general go-to-market and business execution within the ANZ channel.
• To assist in developing new relationships with channel partners, vendors and professional bodies.
• To assist with additional thought leadership around the key concept of unified value distribution in key areas such as IT Security, networking, VoIP and storage.
• To assist in the further development of WhiteGold’s partner enablement strategies, including systems and business unit review and appropriate change.
• To assist with additional media, channel and industry engagement to further strengthen the WhiteGold brand and position the key values of the organisation.

He has been engaged by WhiteGold on a part-time basis for now, but further details about his role within the company will be padded out in the next six months or so.

“It’s a case of baby steps at this stage,” Howard said. “I like to grow things. Global distributors are driven by a different set of metrics, and are more inwardly focused on improving profitability and cutting costs.

“It can be quite frustrating when the direction comes from corporate. At times it’s almost like they’ve forgotten why they’re there in the first place. With WhiteGold I can take a step back from the day-to-day running of the business.

“Small businesses are the ones that vendors will start to turn to. There are gaps in the market appearing, and a growing gap where the global distributors are getting bigger, and that mid-tier is not being serviced.”

WhiteGold is attractive as an alternative role to the major distributors, Howard said, as it has the financial resources and people that many other small distributors lack that allows it to position itself for growth.

WhiteGold managing director, Dominic Whitehand, said that Howard’s appointment was made to help the distributor enter a new stage of growth that would see it attack the enterprise market and become a heavyweight in the industry.

“We have reached that critical mass point, where we needed to engage with industry veterans like Leigh [Howard] and leverage his experience and contacts for our future growth,” Whitehand said.

Howard has some 14 years experience in the Australian distribution industry, holding roles within Westcon Group that entire time. His replacement at Westcon is David Henderson.

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