David Howson is new CEO at Six Degrees as Alastair Mills becomes Chairman

Six Degrees Group has appointed David Howson as CEO with founder and current CEO Alastair Mills becoming Chairman of the Board.

Thursday, 26th January 2017 Posted 7 years ago in by Phil Alsop

Six Degrees was founded by Alastair Mills in 2011 and since then the business has grown to more than ?100m revenue with over 500 staff. Following the sale to Charlesbank Capital Partners in 2015, the company has invested significant new capital in people, services and technology. 6DG has completed 19 acquisitions, most recently adding new solutions capability for application performance management, platform services and public cloud hosting. Alastair is changing roles in order to spend more time with his wife and young children, as well as focusing more on his charitable endeavours, including supporting WeSeeHope, for whom he is a long-standing Ambassador.

David Howson will be taking on the role of CEO as of 1st February 2017. David has 25 years’ experience in the industry, most recently spending six years at Zayo where was a member of the Executive team that grew the company from $80m to over $800m of annual EBITDA at industry leading EBITDA margins, and successfully floated the company on the NYSE in 2014. Prior to Zayo, David spent 12 years at Level 3 Communications where he held numerous senior roles. He has a strong track-record of value-creation through M&A and P&L ownership across a range of leadership positions. Originally from Yorkshire, David has spent the last 16 years in Colorado and will be relocating with his family to take up this position.

On the announcement, Mills commented: “It has been a huge privilege and a great joy to have led the company as CEO since we first put pen to blank sheet of paper, almost exactly six years ago. I have worked alongside a group of incredibly talented and diligent people. I’m hugely thankful for their dedication which has underpinned our success. Now is the perfect time for me to step back from the front line and for a new CEO to lead the next chapter of our growth story. David is well known to both the management team and Charlesbank, and his track record in our sector speaks for itself. We are all looking forward to David joining the team. Whilst I’m looking forward to devoting more time to several charitable interests and more importantly to my long-suffering family, my journey with Six Degrees isn’t finished and I'm delighted to be taking up the role of Chairman, supporting the company’s ongoing success.”

In response, Howson remarked: “I’d like to thank Alastair and the Board for the opportunity to take on the CEO role at Six Degrees. I have followed the company’s fortunes for some time and recognised their significant growth and shareholder returns in its short but impressive history. The team have built meaningful scale and a compelling portfolio proposition, giving me fantastic foundations to build on. I’m looking forward to moving back to the UK and helping Six Degrees establish itself as the market leader for mission-critical technology managed services and to drive growth both organically and through strategic acquisitions.”