Former Logicalis boss Basil Reilly to lead Microsoft partner XCentral

Microsoft partner XCentral has appointed former Logicalis chief executive Basil Reilly as its managing director.

Reilly told CRN he was chosen for his experience in growing businesses, in light of XCentral's ambition to become a $100 million company in the next five to 10 years.

According to XCentral, the company has experienced more than 40 percent year-on-year revenue growth.

Reilly said it was an exciting time to be joining the team.

"They’ve been pioneers in cloud business solutions in Australia and have carved out a dominant position in mid-market. I see huge growth potential in terms of reaching new customers and attracting larger deals," he said.

Reilly said XCentral's approach to business transformation and efficiency played a big role in his decision to take up the position.

"XCentral is future-oriented because we are working on platform three, covering cloud, social and mobile, rather than platform two," Reilly said.

Reilly was most recently Logicalis' chief executive, he joined the company in December 2013. Prior to that, he worked for UXC Connect, where he was the outsourcing division director from 2007 to 2012. He was also promoted to director of managed services, a position he held until he joined Logicalis. Reilly has 25 years of experience in the IT industry, having also worked for HP and Oracle, among other companies.

Under Reilly's direction, Logicalis acquired Melbourne-headquartered Thomas Duryea Consulting for $17 million.

Reilly replaces XCentral co-founder Phil Patelis who will move into a senior executive role and will be able to dedicate more time to collaborating with customers and working with the company's board to drive new strategic business goals.

Patelis said: "Having been through a period of rapid growth in recent years, I feel now is the ideal time to strengthen our management team for XCentral’s next phase of maturity.

"Basil has decades of industry experience and proven results running global IT businesses. He’s a perfect addition to the executive team and I’m really looking forward to working alongside him in my new role." 

XCentral was awarded Microsoft’s small business partner of the year award for both 2013 and 2014, and also received the excellence in managed service award in 2015. In 2016, the company was a dual finalist in Microsoft Australia’s partner awards for excellence in managed service and excellence in regional customers.

In 2016, XCentral was responsible for the deployment of 3000 Office 365 licenses for real estate giant Raine and Horne.