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Flex IT has appointed Andreas Mayer as its new CEO, taking over from Leon Timmermans, who will stay on in advisory capacity until July. Mayer was previously the Managing Director of European demo partner MCKL, which was acquired by Flex IT earlier this month.
“Over the past 5 years, Flex IT has evolved to establish its real DNA and I am very proud to have been able to direct and manage the growth of the company during that time, and bring it to the strong position it’s now in. I have really enjoyed the journey but I am very happy to hand over the reins to Andreas, who I have total confidence in. The acquisition of MCKL took a great deal of work and commitment on both sides, and during that time it became clear that he and I shared common goals and ideas. Now this has been successfully achieved, I felt it was the natural time to move on to the next part of my career as I could leave the business in safe hands,” said Timmermans.
“part of my motivation is to re-build businesses by establishing long-term strategies that will continue to evolve. That’s what inspires me and anyone who works with me knows I have many projects on the go at any one time – it’s the way I like to operate. I will be working closely with Andreas in the first few weeks to offer advice and support when necessary but I know his vast experience in the industry can only benefit Flex IT and ensure its future success.”
Andreas Mayer has more than 25 years of international experience in IT at IBM, Lenovo and HP. Prior to his role at MCKL, he was a senior director of EMEA business operations at HP, and spent over 14 years at Lenovo in various EMEA senior leadership positions, latterly as Managing Director, Benelux, taking total P&L responsibility for Lenovo’s PC business in the region. This international track record across Europe will be very valuable in his new role as CEO of Flex IT.
Mayer said: “I’m looking forward to building on the success that Leon has achieved and to continue beating the drum for sustainability and circular IT. The company has enjoyed real growth over a very difficult time in the world during the pandemic and proved that selecting circular IT products is a natural process that continues to gain traction. We can now see that the governments in Europe are moving in that direction. Companies are also moving in that direction – not only suppliers, and not only vendors – but customers are increasingly demanding it too. A rapidly growing number of companies have sustainability policies and are keen to show to their clients, employees and investors that these are not empty words, but that they are taking concrete actions. They want to reflect this choice in their ESG reports in the year end, and this is a dynamic that will continue to grow over the next few years. Flex IT is in an excellent position to cater for these choices and to demonstrate how easy it can make the process for organisations who want to make the purchase of circular IT the norm.”
As the lifespan of IT hardware is now only three to five years, the annual IT waste mountain continues to pile up. The key is to extend this life cycle in order to drastically reduce the environmental impact. Said Mayer, “My appointment is not about changing direction, because I think we’re heading in the right direction. I want to use everything that we now have in our tool set, and then expand that tool set even further to continue to drive forward and take advantage of the change in mindset across the world about circular IT.”
Timmermans concludes: “For me, it has to be a combination of sustainability, waste reduction and circularity. That’s been my career for almost 15 years, and in that time, it’s become part of my DNA. I’m looking forward to seeing where the next chapter takes me and I wish Andreas and the whole team at Flex IT all the very best. I know they will continue all the good work we have achieved over the past few years.”
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