Advantage Appoints CEO Web Services
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Advantage Appoints CEO Web
Services
Strategic Appointment Marks Advantage’s
Preparation for Australiasian Growth
Auckland – 11 July
2000 – Advantage Group Limited (NZSE: ADV) today announced
the appointment of Mike Stobbs to the newly created position
of CEO Web Services. Reporting directly to Advantage CEO
Greg Cross, Mr Stobbs will be responsible for spearheading
Advantage’s rapidly accelerating eServices business,
including overall strategy and performance.
“It’s a
reflection of Advantage’s rapid growth that this appointment
has become an imperative,” says CEO Greg Cross. “eServices
is the fastest growing sector of the new economy. It’s
driving Advantage’s growth and, as an organisation, we’re
committed to rapidly expanding our capabilities in this
area. The creation of this role marks the next phase of our
expansion into Australasian and Asia Pacific
markets.”
“Advantage is also readying for a substantial
recruitment drive to complement its strong acceleration in
the critical web services market. It’s is a high demand,
tight supply business. We have grown from 60 employees in
June 1999 to 524 today. Since January 1 this year we have
recruited 82 people and we still have vacancies for another
95 people, and the majority of these are in web services.
That’s 177 new jobs right in the heart of the knowledge
economy.”
Mr Stobbs has over seven years’ experience in
strategic management of e-commerce businesses. Prior to
joining Advantage Group, Mr Stobbs was Regional Practice
Director Australasia with Oracle Corporation. In this role
he drew together over 350 consultants internationally to
establish a regional practise. During this time he drove a
number of e-commerce initiatives including CRM, exchange
portals and data warehousing, helping Oracle grow into a
regional e-commerce heavyweight.
Before Oracle, he ran
his own consulting practise, Virtual Technologies, which
helped organisations establish new delivery and channel
strategies, including Internet strategies.
Prior to
establishing his own consultancy, Mr Stobbs was a chief
manager with the ASB Bank, where he was involved in
establishing electronic banking channels including EFTPOS
and desktop banking. He was involved in developing home
Internet shopping initiatives including the first Woolworths
trial, believed to be one of the world’s first. He also has
considerable experience in payment channels and mechanisms,
including clearing-houses and transaction
processing.
“Mike’s significant e-commerce expertise is
respected by operators throughout the region,” said Mr
Cross. “Mike brings expert skills in helping regional
businesses to leverage opportunities across the e-commerce
sector.”
“I’m attracted to Advantage because of its
energy and commitment to building a substantial web services
business,” said Mr Stobbs. “Advantage is in the privileged
position of being able to address all phases of a customer’s
move to an Internet-enabled business model. The company
services a tremendous breadth of e-commerce with speed and
agility, and I’m keen to leverage the end-to-end solutions
Advantage offers.”
About Advantage Group
Advantage
Group Limited, an NZSE listed company, is a leading supplier
of e-commerce and transaction processing solutions in New
Zealand, Australia and throughout the southern hemisphere.
The company has three business units: point-of-sale
equipment, retail solutions and business-to-business
e-commerce. Advantage provides hardware, software,
transaction processing and funds transfer capabilities to
enable complete e-commerce solutions.
ENDS