Former Sugar babe of Viglen fame set for Chrimbo exit

Bordan Tkachuk to split next week... no he was not fired

Tech veteran Bordan Tkachuk is preparing to say a fond farewell to his staff at Viglen after nearly 20 years at the helm of the system builder that was once owned by Lord Shugs.

Sugar offloaded the firm to Westcoast Holding at the start of last year, as we exclusively revealed, and Tkachuk had a two-year earn-out clause baked into his contract.

The time is almost up, but sources reckon the man is leaving a little early. One told us, “he [Tkachuk] has got to clear his desk by the end of the next working week”.

Lee Hemani, son of Westcoast Holdings chief Joe, is running Viglen and sister reseller company XMA, and has been in the operations chair for much of this year, or so we hear.

In the last set of Viglen accounts for the 15 months ended 31 December 2014, revenue bounced 24 per cent to £90.7m on the previous 12 month period.

Operating costs went up 26 per cent to £88.2m, resulting in an operating profit of £2.45m versus £3.1m in the prior year. Contained in overheads was a massive hike in staff costs, wages and salaries that went up to £10.5m from £6.5m.

Directors were paid £809k in total and the highest paid individual, believed to be Tkachuk, was given £657k, up from £245k.

Tkachuk, who was made a director at Viglen in 1996 according to Companies House - six years after he joined the business - previously appeared in the interview stage on the Beeb’s The Apprentice.

He made a notorious gaffe in the 2010 series when he asked a contestant that was pitching a business idea what ISP meant, then claiming it was an abbreviation of Internet Service Protocol instead of Provider.

“I’ve been running Alan Sugar’s companies for the last 25 years, and that’s why I know a little bit about technology,” Tkachuk said.

Maybe the man will decide not to take a job with an ISP as his next career move.

Tkachuk was unavailable to comment, the Hemani pair did not return calls and we are waiting for the marketing team at XMA to provide a statement. ®