Diamond announced it has named Mike Holman as Interim General Manager for Diamond UK and Lee Thompson as Interim Deputy General Manager as part of a reorganizion of senior management.

Diamond UK’s General manager John Hitchen, who has been in charge of Diamond’s United Kingdom division since 1992, took a leave of absence, and after "many months," Diamond COO Chuck Parker said, "(w)e felt that we had reached a point, where we needed to respond to the void created by John’s absence and reorganize the senior management team."

"On behalf of the entire Diamond US and UK staffs, I want to thank John Hitchen for all his contributions to Diamond UK. No one has played a larger role in the success of Diamond UK than John," said Diamond President & CEO Steve Geppi.  "We are, however, very confident we are in good hands with the leadership of Mike, Lee and the rest of the Diamond’s UK management team and experienced staff."

Holman (top left) has worked for Diamond since 2007 in a Purchasing and Marketing role. Prior to that he ran a comic book store.  Thompson (top right) has been with Diamond UK since 1999, and has served as Head of Customer Services and Head of Order Processing.  Both will continue to perform their current duties as well as interim management commitments.

Hitchen worked for Diamond Comic Distributors UK division since September 1992. When Diamond expanded its book distribution (DBD) into the UK in 2004, Hitchen was named DBD UK’s General Manager (see "Diamond, Tokyopop Pushing into UK").