British cloud firm聽UKFast has announced the appointment of Catherine Greening to the role of Chief Financial Officer (CFO) as the firm embarks on an ambitious five-year growth plan.
The move comes as part of the expansion plans linked to the recent investment from Inflexion Private Equity, announced by the hosting provider last month.
Greening, who joined UKFast five years ago as M&A director, played an important role in the recent deal with Inflexion alongside GCA Altium which saw UKFast valued at 拢405m.
Since joining in 2013, Greening has been closely involved in the development of UKFast and its related companies, including the acquisitions of cybersecurity specialist Pentest Ltd, and of public sector cloud and cybersecurity business Secure Information Assurance (S-IA), now UKFast Public Sector.
With more than 18 years鈥� experience in the M&A and private equity industries prior to joining UKFast, qualified Chartered Accountant Greening has worked for heavyweights including PwC and mid-market private equity house, LDC.
鈥淎s M&A director, I was more focussed on one-off projects designed to add value, such as the acquisition of S-IA,鈥� said Greening.
鈥淭he move to CFO sees me far more involved in the day-to-day operations of UKFast, working more closely with the other directors to drive business performance.
鈥淭he timing wasn鈥檛 right at the end of 2018 for an IPO. However, with Inflexion as business partners that still remains a viable option for the future. I鈥檓 also excited to see how ClearCloud and Public Sector develop throughout 2019, with both having incredibly strong pipelines.
鈥淭he culture and energy at UKFast is unique and totally different to anything I鈥檝e experienced before, which all stems from the way [founders] Lawrence and Gail [Jones] run the business.
鈥淔or a CFO, the mix of high sales growth and strong cashflow is hugely attractive. UKFast is a business that constantly evolves and leads the market, making it an exciting place to work.鈥�
UKFast has a customer base of 5,500 UK SME clients and 200 mid-sized companies, which are served by UKFast’s 350 employees across its Manchester campus, London sales office and data centres.
鈥淪ince setting up UKFast nearly 20 years ago, there have been some clear areas of investment and growth,鈥� commented UKFast CEO Lawrence Jones MBE.
鈥淭he past few years our focus has been very much around expanding our R&D team, building products and investing in infrastructure for the future.
鈥淥ur plan for 2019 and beyond is to look at ways to capitalise on our investment. Catherine and her team are well placed to help us accelerate our growth. I am hugely excited by the future, particularly the wealth of opportunities we uncovered during our due diligence.鈥�