Executive Team

Stewart Smythe
CEO

Joining Adapt as CEO, Stewart has a proven track record in leading and transforming Managed Services businesses in both private and public ownership.

Stewart joined the IT Services industry in 2003 as Finance Director of Energis, a privately owned UK telecoms business. He was a core part of the management team that successfully turned the business around and later sold it to Cable & Wireless (C&W) in 2005, as part of a reverse takeover of C&W.

As Managing Director of the Enterprise Division of C&W from 2006 to 2009, Stewart was accountable for 30% of C&W Group revenues and all of its large outsourced customers. During this period, Stewart delivered double digit revenue, EBITDA and cash growth across the division every year.

After the acquisition of THUS in 2008 by C&W, Stewart was appointed CEO of the standalone subsidiary in 2009. In the following 18 months he repositioned the business as a UK mid-market service provider and trebled the EBITDA of the business.

After the successful demerger and floatation of the C&W Worldwide division in Spring 2010, Stewart returned to the C&W Worldwide main board as Group Strategy Director in 2011.

Prior to joining the sector in 2003, Stewart worked for Accenture in their Finance and performance management consultancy practice and KPMGin both their audit and corporate finance departments. He is a qualified chartered accountant.

Mark Woodall
Finance Director

Joining Adapt as Finance Director, Mark has a strong track record of significantly improving the overall commercial acumen of the organisations with whom he works.

After graduating from Oxford University, Mark started his career at Ernst & Young as a professional advisor to entrepreneurial growth companies, moving on to become Head of Commercial Finance at Fibernet Group Plc, a listed telecoms business. Later, Mark joined Huntswood, a private equity-backed business as Group FD, in a 4 year role that culminated in a successful buy back by the founders of the business. Most recently, he acted as the Interim FD of managed service provider DCG Group Limited.

Mark's experience to date in PE-backed, technology-focussed businesses and commercial, pragmatic, down-to-earth approach are ideally suited to the challenges of the dynamic environment in which Adapt operates. Mark will be an asset as Adapt consolidates its position as leading enterprise-class managed service provider to mid market corporates.

Simon Fisk
Sales & Marketing Director

Simon is a Sales and Management strategist with a reputation for creating and leading some of the most successful teams in the IT industry. With over 12 years' demonstrable P&L history acquired in both private and listed companies, Simon brings a wealth of experience in infrastructure, managed services and software sales to Adapt.

As Sales & Marketing Director, Simon is responsible for the strategic direction and execution of Adapt's planned growth, restructuring and developing the departments within his remit to optimise performance and drive new business.

Prior to Adapt, Simon began his management career in the FMCG market place before moving into a sales leadership role in a start up IT / Telecoms business that was successfully grown and acquired by Alternative Networks, later moving to Computacenter to manage their Enterprise and Data Centre sales teams before joining Computer Associates (CA) as Head of Sales for the Commercial Markets sector. During this time, Simon delivered successive growth over 30 consecutive quarters by building and developing teams to drive transformational and large-scale data centre projects to FTSE 500 organisations.

More recently, Simon was recruited by Xploite PLC to integrate and restructure its multiple acquired entities under the Anix brand. Through the execution of targeted sales campaigns, aggressive market strategies and alliances, Simon delivered market-leading profit growth over 24 months, playing a pivotal role in the ultimate sale of Anix to ACS for 31.5m in June 2009.

George Harwood
Director of Operations

George’s 20 year pedigree at leading national telecommunications and Internet Service Providers makes him the ideal addition to the Adapt team. Before moving to Adapt, George was Head of Operations at the UK’s second largest consumer ISP, responsible for delivering networks and services to TalkTalk’s 5.2 million B2C and B2B customers.

George Harwood brings enterprise service delivery capability to Adapt. Experienced in managing large technical departments with diverse support structures across multiple international locations, his expert governance extends from Service Operations to Network and Platform Support, Development, Data Centre Services and Compliance Management.

George is responsible for strategic planning for the Operations group against Adapt’s technical roadmap, designing, implementing and sustaining a programme of continuous improvement and consistent service excellence. His proven track record at delivering results against tight timelines and to SLAs will ensure that Adapt's technical services continue to represent 'best of breed' within the industry.

With a strong technology background across both networks and systems, George has worked at every level within an operational environment to ISO27001, ISO9001 and CESG2-2-4 best practice standards and policies.