Julien Antoine’s new remit as VP of EMEA recognises the need for increased scale and support to the Group’s largest operating region, enabling the structure to flex and adapt to the challenges of a fast changing billion euro business unit. The promotion of Will Smith as CIO, recognises the importance of the Group’s digital transformation and the significance of IT and data intelligence in this journey.
These enhancements to Exclusive Group’s leadership team complement the recent high-profile appointments of Stéphane Duplaix as Director of Strategic Global Alliances, and David Ellis as Group Director of Global Services.
“Our long-term success has always been centred on the ability to anticipate and adapt to disruption without diluting any of our value, and these important new positions will safeguard these unique strengths as we scale to new levels,” said Barrie Desmond, COO of Exclusive Group. “Julien and Will bring huge energy and talent to the team and are fully committed to our VAST mission. These moves also recognise that we need to transform ourselves as well as transforming technology consumption and distribution if we are to maintain our disruptive position.”
“The Group IT function has doubled in recent years, making us well-positioned at the forefront of digital disruption to ensure we are creating value internally, and for customers, partners and vendors,” said Will Smith. “Customer requirements are constantly evolving and we must continually address these while remaining efficient and easy to work with. I firmly believe that if you are not disrupting then you risk being disrupted.”