Failed buyout at heart of Misys cull
New chief exec Mike Lawrie punishes board members involved in unsuccesful management buyout with dismissal
Mike Lawrie, the new chief executive of
Misys dismissed key members
of the board for their part in a failed MBO last year it has emerged. The
casualties were finance chief Howard Evans, Jasper McMahon its corporate
development director and Tom Skelton, the head of its struggling healthcare
operation.
Misys said: ‘The Misys board has agreed with Howard Evans and Jasper McMahon
that they will step down from their current roles. Evans will continue as FD as
a company director until the end of the financial year to ensure a successful
transition to his successor, a search for whom is underway.’
The three men, who were all part of last year’s failed management buyout by
the founder, Kevin Lomax, could collect a total of up to £2m plus any cash they
can extract from the company’s share options scheme.
Lawrie, who took over at the
FTSE 250 company
in October after the departure of Lomax, said he had decided to clear out the
board as he engineers a turnaround of the banking and healthcare sectors
software and solutions provider, based on moving it further into the provision
of IT services rather than just selling software licences.
He said: ‘I felt it was very important that we got an executive team in here
that had a different skill-set, a different background, different experiences
and were comfortable working in a turnaround environment. This is all about
getting the right executive leadership.’
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