MSP Star Vology Hires Former IBM Exec As New CEO

“Now that things are starting to opening up a little bit, we feel that we’re going to be very well positioned post-COVID-19,” says Vology’s new CEO Tom York.

Vology, one of the leading managed services providers in America, has hired a new CEO: former IBM executive and channel veteran Tom York, who plans to elevate the nearly $200 million MSP during and after the coronavirus pandemic by “doubling down” on cloud services and providing new offerings.

“I’m committed to taking Vology to the next level and I’m very confident we’ll get there,” said York in an interview with CRN. “Now that things are starting to opening up a little bit, we feel that we’re going to be very well positioned post-COVID-19. Many of the services we provide are already in great markets, but I think there’s going to be an even stronger market demand for a lot of the services we offer.”

York spent more than 13 years building IBM Global Services business with his latest role being vice president, global strategy, maintenance and technical support. Most recently, York was CEO of the national MSP Essintial Enterprise Solutions, as well as president of managed services specialist DecisionOne.

[Related: Nutanix Confirms Furloughs Of Nearly 1,500 Employees]

One major initiative York will drive for the Clearwater, Fla.-based company, which made CRN’s 2020 Tech Elite 250 and Managed Service Provider 500 list, is doubling down on cloud services. Vology plans to establish a new dedicated cloud services practice to drive sales during and post-COVID-19.

“We’re in the process right now of recruiting an experienced cloud leader, someone that can come in and build the practice and run it. We are going to double down in that arena,” said York. “We’re bringing on some new high-level skills with more planned ahead in our roadmap. We play primarily in the midmarket and this pandemic is certainly going to make people, if they haven’t already put a cloud strategy in place, they’re going to reconsider.”

Another part of York’s strategy to increase revenue in the near future by forming stronger partnerships with the likes of Microsoft and Cisco. While at IBM Global Service, the CEO said he was “very involved in the Cisco-IBM” relationship.

“I spent about seven years in Northern California and Silicon Valley and had an office at Cisco’s campus. So I’m really excited about where we can take that Cisco relationship further,” he said. “For example, we’re getting ready to launch some new offerings around SD-WAN.”

York said his company is well positioned to support the new remote work environment which has sprouted across the globe due to the coronavirus pandemic. Vology, who specializes in cloud, security and networking infrastructure services, is helping customers quickly scale resources and ensure seamless business continuity and disaster recovery.

“We’re in the business of enabling remote infrastructure,” said York. “We were able to take our company to full remote operations inside of a week, and we did that without any major interruptions to our customers and clients.”

The onboarding of York comes just one week after former CEO and Vology founder Barry Shevlin left the company after 18 years to lead a new U.S. midmarket technology practice for Skyway Capital Markets.

In addition to the hiring of York, Steve Torres is being named Vology’s new president. Torres was previously chief operating and financial officer for the company and has spent a total of ten years at Vology.

Vology currently monitors, manages and maintains 215,000 devices at 40,000 customer sites, providing 24/7/365 support through its U.S.-based Network Operations Center and Security Operations Center. York says he is extremely bullish about the company’s future.

“It’s a very opportunistic time to be honest, although we don’t like the circumstances around it. One of the things that has impressed me about Vology is it has an environment with the basic belief of building a culture from the people up, versus the corporate culture of the top down,” said York. “This team has already established that culture with a fantastic employee experience and engagement. That fit my DNA quite well. Services is a people product. I’m excited for our future.”