John Toal has been promoted to the role of European president of Bell Micro with immediate effect.

Toal, who joined the company in 2004 following the firm's acquisition of OpenPSL, takes over the role from Graeme Watt, who was promoted to president of worldwide distribution in May (Channelweb 16 May).

The move was announced internally at Bell Micro yesterday.

Speaking to CRN, Watt said the promotion will allow him to focus on his global responsbilities for the first time.

"John will head up Europe. That will allow me to do this new global role. I have been too involved with the running of Europe and have not been able to give much focus to other territories such as Latin America.

"Europe has a strong team in place and has had for a while now. I love promoting from within. We want to grow and nurture talent and satisfy people's ambitions for career development. John is a strong leader and he has a high profit motivation with an excellent track record of achievement and execution."

In a statement Toal said: "I'm very excited about this new opportunity and look forward to taking Bell Micro Europe to the next level. This is a very dynamic company, and I hope to continue and expand on the rapid growth that Bell Micro’s European business has experienced over the past few years.”