Acting CEO Says Sarcom Financially Strong, On Right Track

Sarcom abruptly announced this week Rick Mills, former CEO, and Scott Berding, former vice president of sales, were "no longer with the company."

Wilcox, a board member who founded the company in 1983, said he will remain in the position of acting CEO as long as necessary.

"I will probably not be a long-term, permanent CEO," Wilcox said. "But I am committed to being at the company as long as I need to be here."

He declined to comment about the circumstances surrounding the departure of Mills and Berding, who were brought in about 18 months ago to help restructure the company's debt and refocus its mission.

"Rick and Scott did a good job," Wilcox said. "This has nothing to do with company performance or anything like that. The fact they are no longer with the company is all we can really say."

Sarcom also announced Chuck Sweet would now serve as acting president. Wilcox said Sweet would concentrate on the financial, operation and internal function side of the business so he can focus on customers and sales.

Wilcox said he has been in the Columbus offices for a couple of days meeting with employees and intends to visit other offices next week. Wilcox denied speculation this week that the company is having financial difficulty. In fact, he credited Mills and Berding with doing a good job of reducing the company's long-term debt and helping turn things around.

Wilcox said he is working to make sure that message is conveyed to every employee and customer. So far, said Wilcox, he's seen nothing but positive energy in spite of some disgruntled back-and-forth accusations contained on CRN's Talkback forum.

"I think we are pretty well-positioned, focusing on our solutions, technology and services," Wilcox said. "We've been investing for the past couple of years, and we're on track to do in excess of $55 million in solutions business this year. So we're really, really pleased."