Kinetic IT names new CEO after explosive growth

Perth-headquartered Kinetic IT has named Michael North as its new chief executive, taking over from his brother, Terry.

After seven years at the helm, Terry has taken a non-executive role at the company, which employs more than 1,200 staff in Australia and claims to be the country's largest privately owned IT service provider.

Michael North is no stranger to the organisation, having worked with Kinetic for the past 17 years in roles including chief strategy officer and chief operating officer.

Kinetic IT has been on a growth surge in recent years, and last December revealed to CRN that it expected to crack $172.5 million in 2016 thanks to significant contract wins, in particular a $160 million deal with Victoria Police and a $45 million win with airline Qantas to provide service desk, ServiceNow management and SIAM (service integration and management) services.

“2015 was a massive year for Kinetic IT, with two major contract wins in Victoria and New South Wales," said Michael. "As we look to bed down these important new clients, it’s the right time for us to build on our strong foundation and prepare for future growth.”

He told CRN that he had officially taken the top job on 18 January, as part of a "longstanding succession plan, which has been in place for a number of years".

"One of the key components of our succession plan was to ensure we avoided disruption and maintained continuity by timing the CEO transition correctly."

Michael expected more explosive growth in the years ahead. "As we’re currently bedding down after 2015’s massive growth period, the timing was ideal. Being at the commencement of our 2016-2020 strategy implementation has been another good trigger for the timing."

Michael has been a key player in some of Kinetic's significant milestones, especially expanding into the Northern Territory and Victoria, and has also led strategy for major bids.

Terry North bows out after some major achievements in his final year in charge, including those landmark contract wins, adding 300 new staff in just one year, as well as establishing a new security operations centre – based around Intel Security/McAfee technology – that went live in September, with a full market launch planned for the start of 2016.

Founded in 1995, Kinetic IT now employs more than 1200 staff with offices in major offices in Perth, Victoria, Sydney and Darwin, along with satellite offices in West Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane.