Klaus Heidrich, chief operating officer of Chippenham-based specialist software and IT group SciSys, will assume the role of chief executive on tomorrow, January 1.
He will take over from David Jones, who will remain with the group as executive director for the foreseeable future. 
SciSys chairman Dr Mike Love said: “I would like to thank David for his contribution as CEO and wish Klaus well as his successor.
“They have formed an effective team over the last two years and I am pleased that David will remain as a director with a particular responsibility for our defence interests. This demonstrates SciSys’ approach to succession planning with a strong focus on internal appointments from long serving members of the SciSys team.”
Mr Heidrich, pictured, who joined the SciSys board in 2009, gained a master’s degree in electronics engineering from the University of Dortmund and in 1989 he joined VCS (later acquired by SciSys) as a sales engineer after working as a sound engineer and musician for three years. From 1992 he was responsible for marketing and sales of VCS and developed VCS media activities until he briefly left VCS for Management Data AG in Hamburg in 2000 where he was managing director. A returned to VCS a year later and took responsibility for strategic business development within corporate management.
Mr Jones joined the SciSys board as a non-executive director in June 2002, becoming an executive director in late 2007 when he took on the role of operations director for the government division and was appointed chief operating officer in January 2010. His earlier career includes some 20 years at Admiral, where he held a number of director-level appointments, including group operations director and managing director of Admiral Computing. He has also been chief operations officer for Allied Worldwide and was a founding member of the DRA Software
SciSys employs nearly 430 staff at its Chippenham head office and in bases in Bristol and Reading as well as two offices in Germany.
The group suppliers bespoke software systems, IT and support services to the organisations in the media broadcast, space, government and defence and environment sectors.
Clients are predominantly blue-chip and public sector organisations including the Environment Agency, the Ministry of Defence, Cable & Wireless Worldwide, the European Space Agency, the BBC and Transport for London.
