Mike Ayres, previously Managing Director Business Markets (UK) at Easynet and later Senior Vice President Strategic Channel at Interoute, joins GCI as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO). Also appointed to GCI’s Executive team is Phil Smith, previously with Colt, CGI and Capgemini. He joins as Chief Operating Officer (COO).
Commenting on the appointments, Adrian Thirkill, CEO at GCI stated, "We now have a full Exec team from CEO to CMO and it’s a capable blend of experienced new joiners and proven GCI seniors. Collectively, the leadership team shares the single vision of realising GCI’s full potential and supporting our people, customers, partners and alliances to the absolute best of our ability. More simply, we now have the right people on the bus and we’ll now pull together to keep GCI not only pointing in the right direction… but together we will accelerate its growth. Our announcement only last week regarding our acquisition of Fusion Media Networks is just one early indicator of that.”
Commenting on his appointment as GCI’s new CCO, Mike Ayres stated, “I am excited to be joining GCI at such a transformational time - and of course it’s nice also to be working again with old friends and colleagues who have experienced a lot together. Across the organisation we have a very good team at GCI, I can see that in the words I have been reading in the press and I can already feel it in the people I have met and chatted with during my early days with the business. I look forward to doing everything possible to provide strong support to my team and a great service to our customers. And, through the discipline of collaboration and partnership - and the traditional values of decency, honesty and integrity - I hope to earn the trust and respect of both our people and our customers.”
GCI’s new COO, Phil Smith added, “I firmly believe that our ability to deliver a great end-to-end customer experience from first engagement through to project scoping, provisioning, service delivery and in-life support is of paramount importance. I believe the team at GCI is primed and ready to take things to the next level. I also believe that in a progressively commoditised sector, GCI will serve our customers better by developing an increasingly proactive and consultative approach. I very much look forward to evolving those aspects of our operation and honing the systems, processes and investments that underpin it.”