Richard Adams (CCL)
Telco giant Spark has promoted internally to find a new chief executive for its major ICT services division, CCL.
Richard Adams, formerly consumer channels lead at Spark, will replace Heather Graham, who is returning to the US.
Graham, an Australian formerly of Oracle, joined CCL last February from Texas, replacing company veteran Andrew Allan. Spark customer director Grant McBeath said he knew Graham had really enjoyed living in New Zealand, being a part of Spark Business Group and delivering great outcomes for customers.
"On behalf of the leadership squad and Spark more broadly, I would like to thank Heather for the contribution she has made during her time with us and wish her all the very best for her return to the United States.," he said.
Adams brought experience in senior leadership roles across Spark’s product and sales teams for over ten years. Before leading consumer channels he led the business sales and service teams across central and southern New Zealand, including Spark's public sector business.
He also delivered experience in developing the solutions that Spark Business Group offered to customers across ICT solutions, data centres and many cloud-based services.
McBeath said Adams blended customer focus, strategic business acumen and understanding of the rapidly evolving ICT environment.
"He is well positioned to help us accelerate this next phase of growth for CCL and Spark Business Group and I am looking forward to working with him in this new role," he said.
Spark's cloud, security and service management unit emerged as an underperformer when the listed telco reported its half-year results in February.
Growth of 3.2 per cent during the period, to reach $224 million in revenue, significantly lagged a target of 5 per cent to 8 per cent, Spark told shareholders.
Cloud growth was driven by demand for public cloud and growth in the health sector, Spark reported. Service management growth had been impacted by restricted access to client sites during the pandemic, the company said, but its sales pipeline remained strong.
Adams starts immediately with a round of introductions to staff, customers, and partners.
