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01/04/2015 08:30
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REL: 0830 HRS Diligent Board Member Services INC (NS)
OFFICE: DIL: Diligent Appoints Brian Stafford as CEO
April 1, 2015
Diligent Appoints Brian Stafford as Chief Executive Officer
Alex Sodi Appointed Chief Product Strategy Officer
Diligent Board Member Services, Inc. ("Diligent" or the "Company") (NZX: DIL)
today announced that Brian Stafford has been appointed President and Chief
Executive Officer, effective March 31, 2015 (Eastern Daylight Time, United
States). Alex Sodi will turn his focus to the design and development of
Diligent's products as Founder and Chief Product Strategy Officer reporting
to Brian. Alex will also continue to serve as a member of Diligent's Board of
Directors.
Brian comes to Diligent from McKinsey & Company where he was a Partner. While
he was at McKinsey, he founded and led their Growth Tech Practice which
primarily focused on Software-as-a-Service ("SaaS") companies, ranging from
early-stage to publicly traded enterprises, driving accelerated revenue
growth through innovation, enhanced go-to-market strategies and global
expansion. Prior to McKinsey, Brian was the Founder, President and CEO of
CarOrder, a division of Trilogy Software based in Austin Texas. Brian has a
Masters in Computer Science from the University of Chicago and a B.S. in
Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and
lives in Manhattan.
David Liptak, Chairman of the Board said, "I am thrilled that we were able to
recruit Brian away from McKinsey. We have huge growth opportunities out in
front of us for Diligent Boardbooks and for Diligent Teams. Today we have put
one of the world's foremost experts in SaaS growth strategies in charge of
maximizing our revenue growth." He added, "Alex has built this incredible
business through his meticulous focus on product and customer experience, and
now he can concentrate on our product strategy and making Diligent Teams a
success."
Brian Stafford said: "I am very excited to become CEO of Diligent. I have
worked with dozens of SaaS companies and Diligent is truly unique. For a
company that has a relatively low profile in the SaaS world, I think it has
enormous potential, and Alex deserves the utmost praise for building Diligent
to where it is today. I am thrilled to partner with him, and the entire
Diligent team, on the next phase of Diligent - which will most certainly
continue with the fanatical focus on building great products, delivering
world-class customer service, and producing strong profit margins."
As Chief Executive Officer, Brian will take responsibility for all day-to-day
operations of the business with a focus on accelerating global growth and
building scale into the business to seamlessly manage the growth. In his role
as Chief Product Strategy Officer, Alex will focus full time on driving
product strategy and, specifically, the development and successful launch of
Diligent Teams.
Investor inquiries:
Sonya Joyce
Ph: + 64 4 894 6912
Media inquiries:
Geoff Senescall
Ph: + 64 21 481 234
About Diligent
Over 92,000 individual directors, executives and board teams worldwide rely
on Diligent Board Member Services, Inc. (NZX: DIL) to speed and simplify how
board materials are produced, delivered, reviewed and voted on. Providing the
world's most widely used secure board portal via iPad, Windows devices and
browsers - Diligent has pioneered ease of use, stringent security, and
superior training and support since 2001. Diligent Boardbooks provides
directors and management with immediate access to their most time sensitive
and confidential information along with the tools to review, discuss and
collaborate on it. It also helps administrative staff accelerate production
and delivery, and corporate executives streamline board communications and
decisions.
Diligent uses the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model to distribute its
Diligent Boardbooks application to the market and maintain the security and
integrity of its clients' data. Under this model, Diligent offers annual
renewable subscriptions for customer access to its Diligent Boardbooks
product which is hosted on Diligent's secure servers, and offers a complete
suite of related services including training, support, data migration and
data security/backup.
Safe Harbor Statement
Statements made in this press release that state Diligent's or management's
intentions, beliefs, expectations, or predictions for the future are
forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Readers are cautioned that these statements
are only predictions and may differ materially from actual future events or
results. All forward looking-statements are only as of the date of this press
release and Diligent undertakes no obligation to update or revise them. Such
forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, assumptions and
uncertainties that could cause Diligent's actual results to differ materially
from those projected in such forward-looking statements. Factors which could
cause our actual results to differ materially from those projected in
forward-looking statements include, without limitation, economic,
competitive, regulatory and technological factors affecting Diligent Board
Member Services, Inc.'s operations, markets, products, services and other
factors set forth in the Company's Risk Factors included in its Annual Report
on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on March 16, 2015.
End CA:00262559 For:DIL Type:OFFICE Time:2015-04-01 08:30:01