Simon John England is Appointed to Managing Director At Comstor Europe; Westcon Group Announces European Strategic Divisional Alignment

Business Wire, Jan 15, 2002

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

TARRYTOWN, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 15, 2002

Westcon Group, Inc., a global channel provider of networking technology products, announced today that it has appointed Simon John England to the position of managing director, Comstor Europe.

In his new position, he will report directly to Westcon Group President and CEO, Alan Marc Smith. Mr. England was previously senior director at Compu-Shack, the Ingram Micro networking subsidiary, where he was responsible for the group's European business development in enterprise networking.

Mr. England will be based in Germany and will be responsible for Comstor Europe's operations, including its offices in the UK, Belgium and Germany. This executive appointment at Comstor Europe is part of Westcon Group's ongoing global management structure realignment, which began in November of last year. Alan Marc Smith commented: "I am pleased to make this announcement, as Simon brings years of knowledge and experience to the position of managing director, Comstor Europe, in both the European markets and our industry. With Simon at the helm, we streamline our European organizational structure, enabling us to pursue opportunities in Europe through a centralized management team while capitalizing on our increased economies of scale."

Mr. England, who has over 15 years experience in the networking and channel business, led Ingram Micro's Enterprise networking distribution activities in Europe, considerably expanding the company's reach into Europe at large. Compu-Shack's revenues grew from DM 65 million to DM 556 million during his tenure there, while the company's leadership position in networking distribution was substantially increased.

"I am very excited at joining a global networking powerhouse and a winning team," Mr. England began. "Europe offers substantial opportunities for profitable growth in areas such as security, IP telephony and content switching. These areas require a great deal of focus and collaboration in the sales channel to unlock the true potential of these markets. This is where we will shine."

Paris Arey, vice president EMEA Channels & Alliances of Cisco Systems, Inc., commented: "Mr. England's appointment to the position of managing director, Comstor Europe is very encouraging. I am confident that his knowledge of the European market, combined with Comstor's value-added services and distribution capabilities will help to continue Comstor's success in Europe."

Christian Kleinsorge, managing director Fibernet GmbH, German subsidiary of the Fibernet Group, added "We've been working with Simon in the European market for 5 years at ICG, the Berlin based Systems Integrator recently acquired by Fibernet. He is well known throughout the channel as being very industry savvy, and as being very focused on increasing solution providers' revenue opportunities. He is intensely committed to providing customers with genuine, value added solutions."

Mr. England, 37, studied mathematics and computer science at Bonn University and began his career in 1986 as a support engineer at Complus, a German networking distributor.

About Westcon Group

Westcon Group, Inc., is a global channel provider of networking technology. Through its divisions, Westcon, Comstor and Voda One, the company offers products and services for convergence technology, remote access, Internet and e-business, virtual private networks, videoconferencing, wireless connectivity and network security. Westcon Group, Inc., is located at 520 White Plains Road, Suite 100, Tarrytown, NY, USA 10591-5167; tel.: 914 829-7170; fax: 914 829-7137; www.westcongroup.com.