Preferred (aap3), a provider of business focused IT managed services, today announced the appointment of Rod Jackson as Chief Executive Officer who will take over from the current interim CEO and Founder of Preferred - Nick Daniels, following a sustained period of ambitious business development and strong growth during 2007.

Rod Jackson brings over 30 years experience in senior IT positions predominantly leading large IT teams – the most recent of which has been  the leading network Systems provider - Cisco where, as Vice President of IT, he was responsible for  bringing together client technology, shared services & worldwide IT support to form the IT Global Client Services group.

Rod is no stranger to Preferred, having been non executive chairman for the Southampton based company for the past 3 years.  Taking up his role at the end of December, Rod Jackson will bring the benefit of his substantial track record of business optimisation to a company that has seen unrivalled growth in 2007.   Commenting on his appointment Rod observed ‘Joining Preferred at this buoyant time in the company’s growth is incredibly exciting.  This year the business has built on it’s strong foundations in Managed Services to create a suite of Business Offerings that are of truly global capability and I believe I can help take the organisation to the next level of success.’

Immediately prior to joining Cisco, Rod was 17 years with Intel Corporation, his last role being World Wide Operations Director for Intel Online Services, where he built & ran a global managed service & hosting business in a 24x7 organization across  multiple global data centers. Prior to this, he served as Intel Regional IT Director for Greater Europe, which included all business functions within the European theatre (Sales and Marketing, System and Component Manufacturing, Design Engineering).
Rod commenced his IT career at “Raychem” Corporation (now Tyco) and prior to this spent five years in commercial banking with “Lloyds Bank Plc”.

As the Company expands it’s footprint into North America and the Asia-Pacific continent, opening offices in San Jose and Bangalore, it is Rod Jackson’s expertise in the development of Global Managed Services, honed whilst at Intel, that will be of particular value to Preferred.  ‘Preferred is so well positioned to take advantage of the globalisation of markets. I really feel that we are at the beginning of a rollercoaster ride that will see a lot of upset for large monolithic organisations in the face of the more agile & flexible companies such as Preferred.

Rod is based in the United Kingdom and is married with three children. He holds a degree in Business Administration, is a qualified Banker (AIB), and has been a member of the Institute of Directors (MIOD) since 1993.    He is a member of the HP board of Advisors.

Preferred International has since been rebranded to aap3 Ltd in July 2008.