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Management Team

Chris Bithell Managing Director

Since co-founding 7global in 1999, Chris Bithell has designed and developed an unrivalled technical infrastructure and data centre to house its clients’ business critical applications.

Chris's career spans some 20 years during which time he has managed the day to day operations of REDBOX, a managed services company that he founded to deliver networking infrastructure and applications to a wide range of UK companies.

Following REDBOX’s acquisition by IKON (NYSE: IKN), Chris became Chief Operations Officer of the newly formed IKON Technical Services Group. With a responsibility for finance and operations, Chris managed the successful integration of the two companies.

John Severs Chief Technology Officer

As Chief Technology Officer, John is responsible for 7global’s service delivery operation. John has been at the forefront of the technology industry for some 30 years having served in senior engineering roles at Firefox Communications and FTP Software, both of whom were acquired by NetManage, (NASDAQ: NETM), a software company that provides solutions for integrating, Web enabling and accessing enterprise information systems.

As Director of Engineering of FTP Software, John was responsible for the company’s software engineering and quality control division and is recognised for his contribution as leading the UK based team that implemented the first multi-protocol gateway on the Novell NetWare platform.

At 7global John is charged with ensuring that the service delivery team meets the growing demands of its customers who depend on them to provide scalable, best in class, managed services and applications, efficiently and cost effectively.

John was awarded a BSc in Mathematics & Computing from UMIST.

Richard Christou Non-Executive Director

Richard joined ITT as a Legal Adviser in 1975 and stayed to become Legal Adviser and Company Secretary to ITT’s UK telecommunications subsidiary, STC Telecommunications Limited. He left in 1985 to become Company Secretary and Legal Director of Solaglas (UK) Limited, but was invited to return to STC PLC in 1987 as Director, Commercial and Legal Affairs. 

Following the acquisition by Fujitsu of 80% of ICL in 1990, Richard relinquished his STC responsibilities, and moved over to ICL.  In August 2000 Richard was asked to take the position of Acting Chief Executive of ICL and he was confirmed in that role in December 2000. 

In April 2002 ICL changed its name to Fujitsu Services and in April 2004 Richard accepted the position of Executive Chairman. In March 2007 Richard accepted the position of Corporate Senior Vice President and Head of EMEA Regional office with Fujitsu Limited, the parent company of Fujitsu Services. His remit is to oversee the various Fujitsu companies throughout Europe and report on Fujitsu’s European business to the Executive Management Committee of Fujitsu Ltd in Tokyo, of which he is also a member.  Richard has been appointed as either Chairman or Board member to all of Fujitsu’s businesses in Europe.

Pieter Hooft Managing Director, UK Investments, LMS Capital

Pieter Hooft is responsible for LMS Capital's UK investment activities. He has over 15 years investment experience in the UK and Europe with individual equity investments ranging from £3 – 50 million in both established and emerging companies. His sector experience comprises media, consumer, industrial, business services and technology/ internet. Pieter joined LMS Capital in November 2006. He previously worked at Apax Partners and JPMorgan Partners and has additional experience as chairman of Germany’s second largest chain of fitness clubs.

LMS Capital plc is a UK-based investment company with stakes in public and private US and UK companies and funds. It was demerged from London Merchant Securities plc in June 2006 and is listed on AIM. The company aims to achieve medium to long-term growth through investment and active management, and targets investments in sectors where management has prior experience.
 

Bill Cooper Financial Controller

7global’s Financial Controller, Bill Cooper, has an impressive track record in accountancy and financial management.  An Associate of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants admitted in 1989, Bill began his career over 25 years ago with Pannell Kerr Forster (PKF) – one of the top firms of chartered accountants worldwide.

Since then, Bill has been in senior financial roles for service industry sector organisations such as Canon UK and Ascension Island Services (part of BBC World Services), where he was responsible for developing its first Management Information System (MIS). 

Bill joined the organisation in 2004 and was responsible for the accounting and administration integration when 7global acquired Fairbridge Communications.

Paul Doherty Sales & Marketing Manager

Paul Doherty heads up 7global’s Sales and Marketing Department and is responsible for new business, customer account management, marketing and PR. Prior to joining 7global Paul held senior sales and marketing roles for technology organisations, both in-house and agency side.

Paul has over 10 years experience in the IT industry and began his career as a Project Manager at ioko, one of the UK’s largest pure-play technology organisations, where he was also one of the founder members.

Paul has worked on cutting-edge IT deployments for companies including BSkyB, IMS Health, EMI, The Law Society and Diageo. Paul is Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) qualified and holds a Bachelor (Honours) degree and a Masters degree from York University.