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In the context of the evolving business
- I doubt if the out going NEDs were adding much value.
- I don't doubt that they could be replaced with better NEDs (ie directors with more relevant domain knowledge)
So, as long as they are indeed replaced by 'Directors with relevant Board experience in AI and data centres' the development seems like a good one.
With an outcome yet to be determined, AWE have ditched all products, product lines, markets etc that are a distraction from where they think they are uniquely placed to capitalise on the big growth opportunity of the age - AI and datac entres. It will be interesting to see how things unfold. I am already looking forward to the Capital Markets Day of June 4th.
You cannot really equate telecoms or general IT business with the business of chip making - especially the niche business of high end silicon IP and connectivity chips for datacentres and AI infrastructure. They are different beasts. They already have Michelle Senecal de Fonesca with telecoms background, and David Reeder has corporate finance experience in the semiconductor sector who has held executive positions at Broadcom and Texas Instruments.
Bringing in a couple of people who specifically have involvement with datacentres and the development of AI infrastructure, and are sufficiently independent of Alphawave, is what the company now needs at this juncture.
I think this one is just good housekeeping, albeit it could have been phased in over 2 AGMs so that people don't freak out (which they have).
More fundamental is whether they can continue to invest what they need to in the face of larger and better capitalised industry giants. It's also become clearer that whilst the UK may have been the right market to IPO, it isn't now the right market for them to be listed. Credo and Astera illustrate that. I think that Alphawave is better positioned business, but the process of reinvention since IPO and the lack of a longer-term investor perspective has punished them in the UK. I take comfort from the fact that management and board still hold the vast majority of the shares, so they have more to gain or lose than any of us.
I think you've described it perfectly. Rosalind, Victoria and Susan all have telecom backgrounds. Telecom used to be a key market for Alphawave (and I think they still do a bit there), but the vast majority of the business and growth is not in Telecom. Paul is in the silicon materials market, which is not high speed communications (it's one of many end markets for silicon on insulator wafers). I can understand why they want the credibility of Susan and Paul for the IPO, given listed company experience, but it's not relevant now. They need industry folks in data centres and networking.
I think's important to stick to the facts and let others draw conclusions. In my opinion, if you are spending £300k+ a year on those directors, you want people who, at the current stage of the business, can give end market credibility and open doors.
The ley question is whether they can bag some big AI/Datacentre deals. If they can, it flies; if they can't, it dies.
Susan Butterworth... Background Three COO
Rosalind Singleton.. Background Extensive IT Corporate and telecomms
Paul Boudre.. Background CEO High speed communications
Victoria Hull... Background.... Corporate Solicitor and blue chip telecomms.
These are NOT peripheral type directors who know little of the industry and I find the AWE announcement quite insulting to Susan, Rosalind, Paul and Victoria.
In my opinion I suspect they don't want to continue in their roles for professional reputation reasons.
I'm sure BluePhallus will come up with a reason why this is a good move.
The iceburg is now in sight and they crew are hitting the lifeboats.
Good luck to any passengers on this Titanic.
Cheers
Barcap
It makes perfect sense to change out independent non-executives if they don't have the appropriate background experience in the specialty sector of data centres / AI. They still have three non-execs and will be adding at least two more with appropriate background experience to ensure they have more than half the directors serving as independents.
Now that they have almost completed the acquisition consolidation phase and are moving into the rapid scale-up of their business, it is vital to have independents with a relevant background appropriate to the datacentre/AI sphere.
Also it is actually quite common for companies to change out independent directors and limit their tenure.