NWN Names COO As It Eyes Future Growth

NWN, a $250 million fast growing national solution provider, is laying the groundwork for a stepped-up march to hit the billion-dollar sales mark by naming six-year company veteran Skip Tappen to the new post of Chief Operating Officer (COO).

Tappen, who was previously executive vice president of the Waltham, Mass.-headquartered company, will now oversee day-to-day operations with P&L (profit and loss) responsibility for six of the seven NWN regions.

The appointment marks a more formal management structure of sorts for company which has put a stake in the ground to hit the $1 billion sales mark.

Tappen, a former partner and 15-year veteran with consulting giant Accenture, has been instrumental in integrating the nine acquisitions that NWN has made over the last five years.

When Tappen joined NWN, the company had less than $5 million in sales with 30 employees in one location. Today, NWN is a $250 million company with 460 employees in 11 locations.

NEXT: A High-Five From NWN CEO Mont Phelps

"Skip has grown with the company and has driven much of the success," said NWN President and CEO Mont Phelps. "A big key has been his experience running large projects and integrating businesses. This positions us for continued growth."

"Everybody inside the company already knows that if they need something, they go to Skip," added Phelps. "Now this lets people outside the company know they should go to Skip."

Tappen said he is sharply focused on working with employees, customers, and vendors to drive the next wave of NWN sales growth.

"One of the keys is how do we adapt and grow and break through the (revenue) ceilings to get from one level to the next, from $250 million to $500 million," he said. "You need to continue to adapt and grow the organization to scale it."

NEXT: A Plan To Significantly Grow Services

Tappen said NWN is aiming in 2011 to significantly grow its services business, including managed services, applications development services, infrastructure services and professional services. At the same time, he said the company will continue to be focused on working closely with its primary vendor partners (VMware, Cisco, HP, EMC, Microsoft) to grow product sales.

Tappen said he is also focused on what NWN internally refers to as continuous improvement. "My personal goal is how do we continue to make each day better than the one before," he said. "My overall goal is to build the business to scale and continue to make it more profitable."

Tappen said he sees the appointment as a natural progression. "It is the same strategy, same direction, working with the same teams to drive the same overall agenda," he said.

What's more, Tappen said he is extremely optimistic about the future for IT sales and services growth. "There are a lot of fundamental changes going on in technology and for us that creates opportunity," he said. "Our objective is to be in the right place to take advantage of the opportunity."