Jim McKenna, chief operating officer at LogicaCMG, is to leave the company in the second half of this year after fourteen years with the firm.

McKenna is not retiring - he will become chairman of Azurri Communications and chairman of Rainer - a charity which supports young people.

But McKenna will stay in his post long enough to help set up Logica's outsourcing services division.

Logica makes about a third of its revenues from outsourcing deals and believes by 2011 a majority of the average corporation's IT budget will go to outsourcing providers.

The division will employ some 9,000 staff in onshore, nearshore and offshore centres. Logica has offshore centres in India, Morocco and the Philippines and a nearshore centre in the landlocked Czech Republic.

LogicaCMG shares are up slightly on the news. ®