ePlus CTO Steps Down After Nearly 12 Years At The Solution Provider Giant

IT industry veteran Mark Melvin's decade-plus tenure at ePlus Technology came to an end last week, as the longtime chief technology officer left the Herndon, Va.-based solution provider to pursue new challenges.

In a post published on his personal LinkedIn page, Melvin wrote that while he is not retiring, he also does not yet have any specific plans for his "next chapter" in life. He added that he'll be relocating to Florida in the next few months.

"To all of my friends and colleagues in the industry, today begins a new chapter in my life as I leave ePlus," Melvin wrote. "I have had almost 12 great years here and will miss all of my fellow ePlus employees and those of you whom I interacted with in the industry on a regular basis. I am not retiring, but I not sure what my next chapter is going to be yet … Thanks for all of the great times we had together."

[Related: Recent Acquisitions Bring New People, Services To ePlus As It Eyes Future Growth ]

ePlus declined to comment for the story, and Melvin could not be immediately reached by CRN.

Melvin joined ePlus, No. 35 on the CRN Solution Provider 500, in 2006 as the director of solutions engineering for the Mid-Atlantic. He was then promoted to CTO in 2008, a role he held for nearly 10 years. During that time he spearheaded work with Space Station Freedom, the U.S. Army RCAS Global Network and a number of enterprise networking, data center and virtualization projects.

During Melvin's tenure as CTO, the solution provider – like many in the IT business – found itself transforming from a transactional hardware reseller to more of a services integrator, with a particular focus on the data center.

Before he was hired by ePlus, Melvin worked as a sales engineer at Boeing and Northrop Grumann IT. He also held technical services and solutions engineering leadership roles at SAIC and Apptis, respectively.

Chris Fairbanks, vice president of engineering at ePlus, praised the work his colleague accomplished in a reply to the LinkedIn post.

"It has been a pleasure working with you for the last 12 years! I wanted to thank you for everything you did to help make this company into what it is today. You will be greatly missed and I hope our paths cross again in the future," Fairbanks wrote.

Melvin leaves ePlus on the heels of several successful acquisitions, which accounted for about 50 percent of ePlus' revenue growth in the first half of fiscal 2018, CFO Elaine Marion said during the company's most recent earnings call.

In September 2017, its purchase of Integrated Data Storage brought ePlus an increased Midwest footprint and a strong services offering for data protection and disaster recovery. The company also bought OneCloud Consulting, a software developer and Cisco premier partner, Consolidated Communications IT Services within the past 14 months; the deals gave ePlus a broad range of data center, collaboration, networking, and security solutions and services, as well as a strong Cisco practice.

"We continue to view consultative and annuity services as a key differentiator and a long-term growth driver for ePlus," CEO and President Mark Marron said in November.