David Pye last week took up the position of chief executive at Highams Systems Services, which specialises in the recruitment of IT professionals to work in insurance and financial services businesses.

Pye, formerly managing director of the technology division at Spring Group, has been in recruitment for more than 20 years.

Highams said: "The board concluded that, as well as seeking business from (small and medium-sized firms) rather than very large corporates, the Group needed to significantly increase its growth by organic means and that a sales-orientated chief executive should be sought to execute this strategy."

Pye told Recruiter: "It was a lengthy recruitment process, and I'm looking forward to growing the company."

Pye had two spells at Spring, the longest lasting more than six years. In between, he worked at Parity. Pye is also the IT sector "champion" for the Recruitment and Employment Confederation.

Ted Andrews, previously group managing director at Highams, is now chief operating officer. After working in the insurance industry, he co-founded Highams in 1983. He told Recruiter: "I'm the last founder standing. We decided we wanted a sales person in charge, rather than someone like me, with an operational background."

The appointment was announced as Highams revealed a pre-tax loss of £39,000 for the six months to September, compared with a loss of £15,000 for the same period a year earlier. Turnover fell to £8.13m from £8.84m.

Chairman Alan Howarth said: "This process of refocusing our strategy has been achieved with only a small detriment to our half-year results. Compared to the same period last year, our volume of low-margin business has fallen substantially, while higher-margin contract business has increased by around 5% and the permanent business has increased by 80%.

Commenting on current trading, Howarth said: "We see continued heavy demand for permanent staff from financial sector clients. This stronger demand for permanent staff compared to contract staff is traditionally a sign of a confident market... And our more recently acquired software house clients all find business in the financial sector is developing well."