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Tech talent scout Braund scouted by troubled Coms Plc

'We've found a CEO' thunders B2B connectivity biz, hope it's better than last time

Financially challenged B2B connectivity and voice provider Coms Plc has poached tech recruitment veteran Mark Braund to take control of the ship, following a messy divorce with his predecessor.

Braund was a former EMEA director of SME at IBM in the 1980s, but for nearly the last thirty years has worked in senior positions at talent scouts including Lorien, TAC Europe, and First Advantage.

The relatively cushy role he leaves (for the turnaround challenge at Coms) is specialist tech recruiter InterQuest Group Plc, which he’s run since May 2011.

“Since the departure of the previous CEO in March our priority has been to appoint an experienced senior executive management team,” said Coms chairman Frank Beechinor.

The last boss of Coms, founder David Breith, split with the company after a failed a boardroom coup that came amid widening losses and an altercation over company shares he bought without telling the board.

The business subsequently sold its loss-making telco arm to Timico to help reduce group liabilities and the overdraft facility. Braund, who was a non-exec director at Coms since March, is not exactly joining a business that is on its uppers.

His start date wasn’t confirmed but he’ll assume full-time CEO duties when he’s “completed an orderly handover” of his InterQuest position, which is a business that's expanding.

In calendar 2014, InterQuest made a stat pre-tax profit of £2.3m, up from £1m in the prior year, on revenue of £150.7m, up 31 per cent.

In another move at Coms, interim FD Spencer Dredge was today confirmed as group CFO. He joined Coms when it acquired Redstone’s cabling business, which is effectively the lion's share of the operations that remains, since the sales to Timico. ®

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