Directors Profiles

James is the entrepreneur who founded Stone Computers in 1991, commencing sales of configured desktop PCs to further education colleges. Under his stewardship, Stone grew continuously and merged with Cometdata Marketing to become a £40million revenue business, prior to his exit at the MBO in February 2005.

After a period abroad, James returned to the company as CEO in April 2006, carried out strategic review, drove through sales and procurement changes, acquired Compusys plc and delivered substantial revenue and EBIT growth.

Prior to Stone, James had a career in sales after leaving College, including sale of air freight (TNT) and car hire branch manager (start up branch). He moved into the IT industry with a public sector sales role at Packard Bell, where he identified shortcomings in their customer service and satisfaction levels and left to start Stone Computers after 12 months.

Simon joined Stone as Finance Director in April 2005 and is responsible for all aspects of Finance, IT and HR.

From 2003 to April 2005 he worked in various interim management roles – including 9 months as Interim Finance Director, Smiths Aerospace Wolverhampton (formerly Dowty), where he oversaw a project to impact a major loss making manufacturing and
engineering site with immediate financial and management control improvements, and recruited a permanent successor.

Simon was the Group Finance Director from 1999 to 2003 of Longville Group, an £80 million buy and build BIMBO in specialist equipment rental, completing and integrating initially 3, and subsequently 11, acquisitions. He left following management restructure and the business was subsequently sold to Carrier Corp.

Following a successful early career with KPMG, from 1994 to 1999 Simon was the Group Finance Director of Andrews Sykes plc, a specialist equipment rental and support service provider. Simon oversaw a major turnaround and restructure of the fully listed plc with disposals, restructuring, refinancing and many acquisitions. Market cap increased from £7m to £250m.

David has been Operations Director since 1991 and is responsible for day to day management of 75% of the staff covering production, warehousing, returns and service. He was MD from 3 February 2005 as the leader of the MBO team, reverting to
Operations role following the return of James Bird.

David developed and implemented the service and support centre, working practices, quality management systems for production and returns and warehousing function with monitoring of related key performance indicators.

He worked for Hays plc (Bucks Transport) between 1976-1990 and rose to the position of Administration Manager, a member of the senior management team responsible for service standards and control of costs, following entry as a management trainee.

David obtained an HNC in Business Management 1996.

Colin joined the Stone Group in 2008 as Group Sales Director and is responsible for the overall sales strategy and the co-ordination of the sales team.

Colin’s successful sales track record includes over ten years experience for a number of BMW dealerships, having held senior positions including Dealer Principal and General Sales Manager where he has consistently achieved high growth within his area of control. In terms of the dealership’s size under Colin’s management, both employed 140 people with a turnover in excess of £60m.   

Colin’s most notable achievements at BMW include being voted the ‘Largest Dealer in the UK for Used Car Sales Volumes in 2006’ at Rydale Sutton Coldfield, and being part of the team that won National Dealer of the Year for 2003 at Godfrey Hall Shrewsbury.

Prior to Stone, Peter completed an apprenticeship with Stoke City then took up a position working for East Staffs District Council at Uttoxeter Leisure Centre.

He joined Stone in 1995, initially in sales, then moving into Purchasing in 1996. Peter built a strong partnership with Tony Harrison from 1998 and the pair were responsible for the company’s innovative product line up.  To date, Peter has implemented a consolidated preferred supplier base, JIT and TQM systems and developed a flexible forecasting system for the supply chain, implementing a lean and quality-controlled supply.

Peter gained Full Membership to the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply in 1992 and is currently studying for an MBA in Operational Management.