THE boss of schools computer company RM is to leave at the age of 47 and move to Northern Scotland.

Tim Pearson, who joined the company at the age of 20 straight from university, said: "I have been here for nearly three decades and I thought that if I was going to do anything else with my life I would have to go now."

He added: "I will take six months off before I think about what to do next. We have a house in Scotland already and I will be planting up the garden."

Mr Pearson - whose annual earnings were listed at £481,000 in the 2007 accounts - said he had many ideas about what to do next, and was particularly interested in renewable energy.

"Our youngest child left to go to university last year and we were conscious of the change in dynamics, so I told the chairman last year that he should think about finding a replacement."

He added: "I'm proud to be handing over at a time when RM has both record committed revenues and record customer satisfaction levels.

"Our excellent win rate in the Government's Building Schools for the Future projects, along with the development of a more broadly-based education business, provide a great platform for the future."

Turnover has grown from £100m to £380m in the last six years and he said RM was entering a new era increasing its international presence, particularly in the United States. It recently opened an office in New Zealand.

Mr Pearson joined the board at the age of 36 and became chief executive six years ago.

He will be succeeded on September 30 by Terry Sweeney, the group's managing director for education resources and software, who was chosen after a trawl of outside candidates by headhunters.

The group's chairman, John Leighfield, said: "In his six years as CEO, Tim has both provided clear strategic direction and built an educational ICT project delivery capability that is unrivalled.

"Under his leadership, RM has been transformed into a group of education companies with four clear focus areas, and is firmly established as the leading supplier of technology to the Government's Building Schools for the Future programme."

He added: "We considered a number of excellent candidates - both external and internal - and I am confident that Terry, whose entrepreneurial flair has been a major factor in RM's very significant success in education resources, is the right choice."

Terry Sweeney has an electronic engineering degree from City University, an MBA from Oxford Brookes University and attended the Harvard Business School. Before joining RM he was global procurement manager at British Aerospace.

Mr Sweeney is married and lives with his wife and three children in Sutton Courtenay, near RM's headquarters at Milton Park, where about 1,300 of the group's 2,300 employees work.