Advania bolsters executive team

Advania UK has announced several senior hires as the business looks to bring in fresh talent and perspectives to drive its next stage of growth. The firm has appointed Sabrina Harris as chief financial officer and Tara Alliso as chief marketing officer, with briefs to make a positive impact on the operation.

Advania has been reshuffling its senior management pack since last autumn, when CEO Geoff Kneen exited the business to be replaced by James Hardy, formerly CCO of Advania UK and CEO at CCS Media, which was acquired by Advania last year.

Harris joins from BT, where she held several senior finance roles, and has experience in supporting profitable growth and supporting business transformation.

Allison comes with a similarly impressive CV, which stretches over more than two-and-a-half decades in marketing. She previously worked as the marketing lead at Trend Micro across the UK and Ireland, and clocked up time at Gartner and SAP prior to that.

The arrival of the two women will also have a positive impact on the diversity levels in the firm’s senior management team, taking it to 40% female.

Hege Støre, CEO of Advania Group, said it had been developing the business in the UK, and the latest additions would bolster the senior leadership team: “We have built a strong position in the UK in a short period of time. These appointments are about building on that foundation. Sabrina brings the financial leadership needed to support disciplined growth and performance, while Tara will play a key role in strengthening how we show up in the market and how we connect with customers.”

From their perspectives, Harris said that the business momentum had already developed, while Allison said that the firm had a strong proposition to offer customers.

“Advania has a compelling proposition and a clear role to play for customers navigating complex technology decisions,” said Allison. “I’m excited to help bring that to life in the market and build greater visibility and engagement.”

Advania entered the UK market back in 2021, with the firm ratcheting up four major acquisitions – Content+Cloud, Azzure IT, CCS Media, and Servium – in the past few years as it establishes itself as a significant managed services player.

Elsewhere, ERP specialist Syspro has promoted chief revenue officer Leanne Taylor, giving her the opportunity to make a greater difference in the role of CEO, succeeding Jaco Maritz in a planned leadership succession.  

Maritz has been at the helm of the business for the past four years and seen the operation grow through its first phase of private equity. He is staying involved, taking a board position as a non-executive director.

Taylor has been with the business since April last year and made an impact on the firm’s global strategy, particularly strengthening its partner ecosystem. “Syspro has a strong foundation and bold opportunity ahead to lead the next wave of ERP with AI,” she added.

“We are entering a new era where intelligence, automation and operational context will reshape how industrial businesses run. Our focus is to continue evolving the platform into the trusted digital backbone for the true pros of industry, combining deep operational expertise, modern platform architecture and embedded AI to deliver contextual intelligence inside the real workflows of manufacturing and distribution.”