Vladislav Martynov is leaving the President’s position of Columbus IT

Copenhagen – Vladislav Martynov, President of Columbus IT, is leaving his position after being two years at the company and completing the task of company's reorganization and financial improvements. Starting from January 2007 Mr. Martynov's responsibilities and authority will be turned to Michael Gaardboe - the founder and CEO of Columbus IT.

Vladislav Martynov has held the position as CEO and later President in Columbus IT International HQ since February 2005. Before that Mr. Martynov worked for Microsoft Corporation, starting as a Managing Director of the Microsoft Business Solutions in Russia, and later at Microsoft Corporation's headquarters as a Senior Director, being responsible for the World Wide ISV Partner Strategy and relationships with independent software developers. He was one of the founders of Columbus IT Russia in 1997.

Vladislav was invited to lead Columbus IT due to his extraordinary experience in IT-consulting and software business and knowledge of ERP market as well as his wide international background. He was asked to, work out the strategy and plan to reorganize the company, to stabilize its financial situation, to prepare the platform for the further growth and new markets' expansion.

Vladislav Martynov's decision to leave the Columbus IT president's chair is based on the fact that above mentioned goals assigned to Vladislav by Board of Directors and shareholders have been successfully completed and Vladislav is interested in building his own business. “I'm very happy that I took the offer of Michael Gaardboe and Ib Kunoe, the main shareholders of Columbus IT, and invested two years of my life, efforts and experience into the company, helping it during the complicated period of its development. Now I can proceed with my own projects: create and invest into new companies in new emerging and innovative areas of IT market” – commented Mr.Martynov.

“We are very thankful to Vladislav Martynov for developing and executing a new strategy which helped us to increase our efficiency and to get higher level of control and transparency; with his help we also substantially increased the company's assets holdings and capitalization, improved financial results of Columbus IT, opened several new business divisions and created a global software development center. Columbus IT is much more stable and reliable company today. I'm deeply satisfied with the collaboration we had with him” – said Ib Kunoe, the Chairman of Columbus IT.

Michael Gaardboe, the founder of Columbus IT commented the Mr.Martynov's decision with the following: “I know Vladislav Martynov for almost 10 years. The Columbus IT Russia he created successfully survived the 1998 crisis and became one of the best subsidiaries of Columbus IT in 2001. And now Vladislav confirmed his reputation of high-professional who is able to deliver successful results in the most complicated and despairing situations; he was one of the main architect who developed and realized the strategy which breathed a new life into Columbus IT. Vladislav is the entrepreneur to the very marrow of his bones, it is important for him to be independent; he also likes innovations and changes so his going away is not really a surprise for the stakeholders. We are sincerely wishing him a success in his new role and his new projects.”

“Columbus IT is going to keep focus on creation and development of the vertical solutions, enlargement of product line and new territory expansions. We have a potential for a further serious growth and we are going to realize it fully”, – added Michel Gaardboe.

Columbus IT is an international consulting company with representative offices in 28 countries of the world. The company provides consulting and management services, helps to choose, implement and service corporate informational systems. The company has over 5000 solutions for the businesses of different branches all over the world. Columbus IT – the world biggest center of expertise and a leader of Microsoft Dynamics AX sales.