Well known Wiltshire entrepreneur James Phipps has joined South West-based managed service provider WestSpring IT as their Executive Chairman.
James was previously Executive Chairman of Excalibur Communications, leaving the board of the company in 2020 after completing a management buy-out. He has since focused his time on sitting on numerous charitable boards and investing in multiple businesses.
Now he is stepping in to help run this high growth business and is also making a significant personal investment as there are plans for rapid recruitment and additional office openings.
James said: “When I came out of this sector many years ago it was always going to take a genuinely special business to attract me back into it. WestSpring reminds me of the excellent service and famous culture we created during my time at Excalibur.
“This company has a fantastic value-led culture which is client obsessed – reflected in their recent Customer Loyalty award in the Lloyds Bank Business Excellence Awards. I am excited to join as Executive Chairman and bring my knowledge and expertise to help guide the continued growth.”
James will be joining founders Jason Small, known as Jase, and Phil Cater. The pair met while both working for the same company and both felt they could offer something different – a brand which cared for clients and their team equally. They set up WestSpring IT in 2016 and since then they have grown their team to 32.
Jase said: “WestSpring has enjoyed a sustained period of growth in the last few years and in the last year alone we’ve seen growth of over 30 per cent and our revenue for the year will be close to £4million. We are growing far beyond what co-founder Phil and I ever imagined.
“We reached the stage where we need greater experience and knowledge to successfully manage our next phase of growth and to continue to deliver fantastic service to our clients. We knew we needed to expand our leadership team. With his extensive experience in the sector and people-first, value-driven approach it was clear that James was the ideal person to support us.”
Based in Aztec West in Bristol, the WestSpring IT team have big plans for 2025 to increase their client base across the South West and beyond and are planning to open a satellite office in Swindon within the next few months. This will also mean bringing new jobs to the Swindon area and beyond.
Phil said: “WestSpring was founded with the desire to deliver outstanding client service with an excellent company culture – something that you rarely see in this industry.
“Establishing this culture is how we’ve maintained our first-class client experience over the years, and this was recognised with our recent award win. We knew that anyone coming into the business alongside us needed to be aligned with our values to facilitate our business growth without losing our culture.
“Having led his previous company to Times Top 100 and Investors in People Gold Standard, we knew that James would be a great fit for WestSpring.”
WestSpring provides strategic managed IT solutions, with service excellence a priority, establishing long lasting partnerships with businesses in the UK. Their clients include Halo Leisure, Circadian Trust, Method Consulting and Precision Resource Group. For more information visit https://westspring-it.co.uk/