FInancial Times article.8 Aug 2018 12:38
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the UK when she was three years old, and by the age of 17 she found herself rescuing her father’s corner shop business when it ran into financial trouble.
She led the fight with the bank which threatened to pull the plug, coped with the sale of the business, the care of her siblings and the distress of her parents, which led to their ill-health.
It was a tough introduction to the world of business but today, Ms Murria talks about the “great privilege” of living in the UK, with health and education available “on the doorstep”.
“My mother, who never got an education, wanted to make sure that I did. She once brought someone to the house for dinner who told me that I should read Computer Science magazine, so that’s what I did – I didn’t even know what it was at the time,” she says.
She is now chief executive of Aim-listed Advanced Computer Software Group which, in three and a half years, she has built into a company with a market capitalisation of £200m and which employs 1,000 people, with an eye on expanding its export markets.
In recognition of her achievements in the technology sector, Ms Murria was named “Woman of The Year” at the 2012 Cisco Everywoman in Techology Awards in April.
It was the latestg high in a career that grew out of her MBA final year project. She was awarded BSc, first class, in Computer Science by the University of London and followed it up with an MBA, which led to a job in sales with Kewill Systems, a logistics software company founded in 1972 and named after two management consultants – Kevin Overstall, the chief executive, and William Loeffen.
Ms Murria recalls: “Kevin spotted something in me – this loud, noisy, enthusiastic and driven 22-year-old – and put me in charge of 13 acquisitions in 15 years. I went through the process of getting involved in every business and understanding how it operated,” she says.
By 1997, Kewill was on the Forbes list of global small companies, with the magazine commenting that “at this rate, Walton-on-Thames [its base] could soon be the headquarters of a truly global company”.
In fact, it was headed for difficult times, but by the time Ms Murria, who had become group chief operating officer, left in 2001, she says: “I felt that I could do it myself, having been taught an immense amount.”
Full of confidence, she became chief executive of Computer Software Group, and “did exactly what we did at Kewill – acquired a great many companies”. She then took it private in 2007 at the height of the private equity boom.
She netted her i
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