RE: More contracts31 Aug 2018 17:35
Toople PLC (LSE: TOOP), a provider of bespoke telecom services to UK SMEs, is pleased to announce the appointment of Kevin Lawrence, aged 54, as Chief Financial Officer with immediate effect.
Kevin originally qualified as a chartered accountant with PWC before joining Grant Thornton in 1997. In 2000, he joined Lighthouse Group plc as Group Finance Director and subsequently joined Cybit Holdings plc ("Cybit") as Group Finance Director in 2002, a role he held until 2010. At Cybit he worked closely with the CEO to grow the business from a shell company to a UK market leader with 20% market share and 150 employees in under 7 years. He was instrumental in delivering both organic and acquisitive growth over this period, with the primary responsibility to secure third party leasing and banking relationships to fund rapid growth.
During his time at Cybit, Kevin took overall responsibility for completing six acquisitions with responsibility for financial and legal due diligence; raising acquisition funding from the group's bankers; and liaising with the group's nominated advisers, the Stock Exchange and brokers as part of each process. In January 2010, he oversaw a transaction which saw the group taken private by US Private Equity firm Francisco Partners delivering a 105% premium to shareholders on the prevailing market price. Subsequent to the take private transaction, working with Francisco Partners, he was involved with the acquisition of a major international competitor to the business which effectively quadrupled the size of the business in one transaction.
In 2012 he joined Atego Group Limited, a private equity backed business specialising in Model-based Systems Engineering Software Tools used principally in the military and aviation sectors, and latterly the automotive industries. Kevin worked with the CEO and the then Chairman of Atego Richard Horsman, (the current Chairman of Toople) to overhaul business strategy and completed an $8 million acquisition from IBM to support the new strategy. Subsequently the business was sold to NASDAQ listed PTC Inc at an exit enterprise value significantly above shareholder expectations.
Most recently, Kevin is the Chief Finance Officer at Gardien Group, a private equity backed business specialising in the testing of PCB boards that are fabricated for clients supplying the automotive, defense, telecommunications, aerospace, medical and computer markets worldwide. The business has approximately 500 staff and revenues of US$40m per annum with operations in China, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, US, Canada, Germany and Belgium. He is responsible for leading finance teams across locations in Asia, North America and Europe.
https://www.investegate.co.uk/toople-plc--toop-/rns/directorate-change/201806280700128231S/
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