Vitesse Media PLC Senior Management Appointments and Update (2875B)

TIDMVIS

RNS Number : 2875B

Vitesse Media PLC

09 January 2018

9 January 2018

Vitesse Media plc

("Vitesse", "Company" or "Group")

Senior Management Appointments

and

Update

Vitesse Media plc (AIM: VIS), the AIM-quoted digital media and events business, announces the appointments of James Robson as Chief Operating Officer, Clive Brett as Chief Technology Officer and Lawrence Gosling as Editorial Director and an update.

Senior Management Appointments

James Robson has an extensive knowledge of the B2B media sector and significant transactional experience from a career spanning 25 years. James joins Vitesse from leading publishing company DC Thomson, where he headed up its DC Thomson Ventures division since 2015. Prior to this, James worked extensively in the media industry, firstly as part of ITVdigital's corporate development team, followed by six years as Strategy & Business Development Director of BBC Worldwide's Home Entertainment division and latterly spending a year as Interim Managing Director of satellite platform Freesat. James qualified as a corporate lawyer with Clifford Chance in 1995, completed an MBA at Cranfield School of Management and worked as a strategy consultant with Andersen Consulting until 1999. James has also worked in corporate finance roles in the media teams of both KPMG and Grant Thornton.

Clive Brett brings a wealth of experience from the adtech industry, having co-founded Convertr Media Limited in 2011 and built its digital marketing technology platform into a global market-leader used by many of the world's leading brands. Convertr is a customer acquisition platform that uses data augmentation to power demand generation for B2B and B2C brands globally. Clive is a Non-Executive Director of Convertr and has previously been Chief Technology Officer of Playmob and Senior Technical Advisor at SeedCloud. Prior to co-founding Convertr, Clive was the founder and CEO of BB-IT Solutions Limited.

Lawrence Gosling has more than 20 years' experience in senior editorial roles, having launched and grown several notable titles within the investment sphere. Most recently, Lawrence was the Group Editorial Director of Incisive Media and the Editorial Director of the Financial Services Division. He was the editor of Investment Week when it was launched in January 1995 and went on to launch a range of magazines, websites and conference and awards programmes for the business. In 1994, he joined Reuters and prior to that spent five years with Financial Times magazines, notably on Financial Adviser. Lawrence was also the launch editor of IFAonline, Mortgage Solutions, Cover and Bloomberg Money magazines. Lawrence started his journalistic career at the Fleet Street News Agency which provided a range of stories for the UK's national newspapers.

Update

Sales for our larger events in Q4 FY2018, specifically the Quoted Company Awards, Women in IT and Women in IT USA, continue to run ahead of budget.

As announced at the time of our interim results on 26 October 2017, the Company has taken a strategic decision to fundamentally evolve its sales mix towards more visible revenue streams and this evolution continues apace. The Board believes that this is the right long term direction for the Group, especially against a backdrop of a continuing poor display advertising market.

In its interim results announcement, the Company also stated that it believed that it should see a return to profitability in the current financial year, albeit at a low level. However, the Board has subsequently decided to accelerate investment, specifically in Governance, IT, Operations and Editorial Leadership, culminating in the Senior Management appointments announced today. The Board believes that these investments in the future of the Company will enhance shareholder value by delivering the platform required for Vitesse to maximise revenue opportunities from its brand portfolio and to deliver the growth, both organic and by acquisition, that it expects to generate in the years ahead. Accordingly, the Board now expects the Company to report a small loss for the year ending 31 March 2018.

Simon Stilwell, Chief Executive Officer of Vitesse Media, said:

"We're pleased to announce today three senior appointments of such high calibre. Both James' experience within the B2B media sector and Clive's technical expertise will be invaluable in allowing us to execute on our ambitious growth plans; developing new revenue streams and building the business both organically and through acquisition. We are also delighted to be adding Lawrence to our strong editorial team, in line with our aim to continually improve the content and profile of our in-house publications to add value for our clients, sponsors and readers.

"It is a true testament to Vitesse's long term potential that we are able to attract such experienced and well-respected people to the business. We look forward to capitalising on our new colleagues' skillsets and expertise."

For further enquiries please contact:

 
 Vitesse Media             [phone] 
  plc                       7035 
------------------------  --------------- 
 Simon Stilwell, 
  Chief Executive 
  Ed Riddell, Finance 
  Director 
------------------------  --------------- 
 Stockdale Securities      [phone] 
  Limited                   6100 
------------------------  --------------- 
 Tom Griffiths 
  Ed Thomas 
------------------------  --------------- 
                           [phone] 
 Alma PR                    9668 
------------------------  --------------- 
 Rebecca Sanders-Hewett 
  Robyn Fisher 
  Susie Hudson 
------------------------  --------------- 
 

About Vitesse Media plc

Vitesse Media plc is an AIM-quoted leading B2B media business specialising in events, digital activities, data and research across four key sectors: Technology, Investment, Diversity and SME. Vitesse's ambition is to create content that informs, communities that engage and brands that inspire in order to enable a better business environment for our sponsors and clients.

Vitesse's flagship titles include SmallBusiness.co.uk, Growth Company Investor, Information Age, GrowthBusiness.co.uk and What Investment. Vitesse Media is also responsible for a growing portfolio of high-profile events, including The Quoted Company Awards, Women in IT Awards, British Small Business Awards and Data 50 Awards, amongst others.

For more information visit www.vitessemedia.com

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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January 09, 2018 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)