CLOUD computing company iomart has appointed a new chair.

Lucy Dimes is joining the Glasgow-based business in the non-executive role after outgoing chair Ian Steele announced at the company’s full year results in June that he would not be standing for re-election.

Iomart said Ms Dimes was an “accomplished business leader” who had held senior executive positions in FTSE 100, FTSE 250 and private equity-owned companies in sectors including telecoms, technology, business services and financial services.

“Lucy has substantial experience in complex, highly regulated international markets in product innovation, market entry, scaling for growth and expansion,” iomart said.

Ms Dimes also sits on the board of London-headquartered defence and aerospace group Babcock International, which announced turnover of £4.1 billion and pretax profit of £182.3 million in its latest full-year accounts.

Ms Dimes is also an advisor to Spanish software development company Intelygenz, which specialises in automation and artificial intelligence technology.

Before it was bought by French company Elis in 2017, Ms Dimes previously sat on the board of Berendsen, a London-based textile services business with a turnover of around £1 billion.

Ms Dimes said she had admired iomart for a number of years and that the UK did not have many “home-grown technology businesses.”

Iomart announced earlier this month that it was buying Concepta Capital, a group of Yorkshire IT businesses, for up to £14.5m as part of its mergers and acquisitions strategy.

At its full-year results in June, iomart said it planned to use “selective M&A” to augment organic growth, and had secured a £100m credit facility with four banks to help with this.

For the year to end March 2022, iomart’s pre-tax profits fell 2% to £12.2m on turnover down 8% to £103m.

Iomart said in 2021 that it wanted to be a £200m turnover a business within five years.

Chief executive Reece Donovan said Ms Dimes’ experience and insight would be “invaluable” as iomart continues to pursue its growth strategy.

The company employs 400 people and was founded in 1998.