KCom Retail is to welcome a new managing director.

John Rooney is to leave the business at the end of this month, returning to his native Ireland where he becomes chief executive of Imagine Communications, a Dublin-headquartered wireless broadband provider.

Neil Bartholomew, who has been KCom Retail’s head of sales and marketing for the past year, will step up.

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It follows last week’s appointment of a new chief executive in Tim Shaw, former managing director of the Wholesale and Networks division, as Dale Raneberg joins parent company Macquarie Asset Management.

Mr Rooney, who joined KCom in 2020, has overseen a transformation as the business has established itself in East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire, outside of its traditional Hull heartland.

As well as achieving record customer growth – up to 147,000 in the latest figures, he has led the business through its separation from KCom’s national ICT business as it has refocused on becoming a regional broadband powerhouse.

A KCom spokesperson said: “We wish John all the best for his return to Ireland and thank him for all his efforts to make KCom’s expansion into new areas a roaring success.

“During John’s stewardship KCom Retail has undergone a huge transformation, attracted record numbers of new customers and delivered performance improvements in earnings, employee engagement and customer satisfaction levels – all set against the challenging backdrop of a global pandemic.”

Mr Bartholomew takes the role with more than 20 years’ experience working within the telecommunications and broadband industry, including time at Virgin Media, where as executive director of customer operations he led teams across all consumer facing areas including sales, care, field service and installations, as well as network expansion areas.

The spokesperson added: “We’re delighted that Neil has agreed to step-up to the KCom Retail managing director role. This will ensure continuity and enable us to build on the great progress he has already overseen winning new customers and spreading the KCOM brand across our new network expansion areas.”

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