After nine very successful years building up the First Rate business in New Zealand and Australia I have stepped aside from my operational job as CEO of First Rate, and handed the reins over to Kevin Francis (http://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinafrancis) in New Zealand and James Ward (http://www.linkedin.com/in/wardji) in Australia.
I will however maintain an interest in First Rate’s ongoing success through my strategic advisory role as the group’s Head of Search & Performance, and I will continue to be based in First Rate’s offices in Auckland and Sydney.
I’m very excited to take up a major new challenge within First Rate’s parent group Q Ltd (ASX:QXQ) establishing a new business (QED) that will be tasked with devising, developing and growing profitable online assets, including opt-in email lists, ad networks and other web assets.
QED will utilise the 100+ digital experts employed by the group to design, develop, operate and market these online assets. For those that are unfamiliar with Q Ltd this is the company I sold First Rate to two and a half years ago. Q Ltd owns 7 other digital businesses and most of the founders of these businesses have committed to remain within the group for the long term. This means I will be working with a range of industry veterans ranging across strategy, creative, development, marketing and sales. QED will therefore have access to some of the best minds, experience and capability in the world.
Q’s existing online assets already generate many millions of dollars in revenue and this new business will build on this success by significantly increasing Q’s online assets.