Empired bolsters IT team

IT services minnow Empired today announced several senior appointments, giving it “arguably one of the strongest and most experienced IT leadership teams in the country".

Empired managing director Russell Baskerville said his group saw many growth opportunities, and therefore decided to make a ”big commitment” to bolstering its executive team.

“We decided it was the right time to crank up our capability,” he told WA Business News.

“There are a number of multi-million dollar tenders coming up that we are well placed to win.”

He acknowledged ASX-listed Empired is still a small player in the market, “but we have over 200 staff so we do have significant capability”.

Mr Baskerville also highlighted the capability of its leadership team, which now includes Brett Gresele as general manager, managed services. Mr Gresele previously ran ASG Group’s infrastructure services business, and has also worked for CSC and Unisys.

He will join Rob McReady, who left ASG Group last year to become Empired’s chief operator officer. Mr McReady had previously been ASG Group’s national manager sales and delivery, with about 700 staff reporting to him.

Perth-based Empired has also appointed Mike Luyckx as business development manager strategic services, after recruiting him from CSG Limited.

And it has appointed Don Beer as business development manager energy and natural resources. He was previously at Computer Sciences Corporation.

Mr Baskerville said the leadership team would significantly enhance Empired’s profile in the market, expand its customer relationships and network, and help it compete on major deals.

Empired’s announcement comes one week after national business and IT consulting firm Ajilon announced the appointment of Murray Rosa as general manager, government and utilities.

Mr Rosa was previously ASG Group’s general manager sales and delivery.

Ajilon said Mr Rosa will be initially based in its Perth office, but will have a significant focus on the expansion of Ajllon’s business on the east coast.

Ajilon has 600 employees nationally and is a member of the Adecco Group, a Fortune 500 company based in Zurich.

Empired reported total revenue of $39 million in the 2011 financial year and net profit of $0.2 million.

Perth-based ASG Group is a much larger national player – it had annual revenue of $153 million and reported a net profit of $15.7 million.

ASG rejigged its own senior management team late last year, recruiting Melbourne-based Stuart Whipp as its chief financial officer.

He replaced Sydney-based Dean Langenbach, who took on the role of chief operating officer.