Forum Topics EVS EVS Appointment of new COO

Pinned straw:

Added one year ago

Ana Rowe has been appointed to the role of Chief Operating Officer. She comes with almost 20 years’ experience in digital product management, strategy, consulting and operations. 

Her background seems impressive, having previously been in leadership roles at SEEK, REA Group and Thoughtworks Australia. As COO, she will oversee all aspects of operations, and is responsible for "identifying areas of improvement and leading required change". Interesting choice of words, with lots of focus on improvement and change.

Ana was a Senior Product Manager in the media line of business at the REA Group (realestate.com.au), managing their content sections and delivering innovative solutions for over 3.5mil monthly visitors, and also looking after native media solutions for customers.

At SEEK Ana was a Product Manager for a number of years, managing the seekbusiness.com.au site, as well as delivering jobseeker products in the areas of search, personalisation and job application process.

Prior to product management, Ana's experience was primarily in marketing and market research roles. She also holds a Master's degree in marketing.

So in short, primarily product manager experience, including experience with reputable, ASX listed companies. Prior marketing experience also. An interesting fit for EVS who really need to encourage adoption of their tech/product suites. Hopefully a good hire.

Rocket6
Added one year ago

Haha spot on @Wini, a great clip.

I am a little torn with this one. On one hand, impressive that EVS have been able to attract her. No question her resume appears to be an impressive one. The emphasis on change in the announcement makes me think there is some improvement to be made (this is hardly surprising ) -- perhaps in their offering or at least how they market themselves to companies -- and she will be responsible for driving any improvement, presumably. If EVS don't have any such plans -- or if she doesn't have plans to address current limitations -- then I agree this is likely to add little value to the underlying business.

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AUROPAL
Added one year ago

Is another highly paid C-suite executive really what a company like EVS needs?

I feel that a lot of small caps get very heavy on the management side without having the actual workers underneath to warrant it.

It could also be a very empty title.

A girl I went to uni with was very driven to achieve a C-suite title and ended up becoming Chief Commercial Officer of a startup, which sounds very successful until you realise the startup employs a total of 10 people.

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NewbieHK
Added one year ago

This is a whole new Forum Topic in itself…”The Evolution / Creation of Titles”.

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Bear77
Added one year ago

And at the other end of the scale - WAY down the bottom, I was once offered a role as the head of the robotics division of Korvest (KOV.asx) for their afternoon shift production team, and found out their "robotics" team was myself and one other person running a robotic welder for their cable trays/ladders, and it was 90% labouring and 10% machine program adjustments. I actually did the job for 3 months before leaving for something that paid a higher wage, but it taught me that job titles don't always tell you too much about the actual roles.

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Wini
Added one year ago

@Bear77 As always, The Simpsons nailed this 20 years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yemjuMX_x5U

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nessy
Added one year ago

Try working for an American company. I am a physio and work on the tennis tour and treat players and mentor younger physios. They call me Senior Director of Medical Services!!!!! Looks good on the CV

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Strawman
Added one year ago

haha -- i reference that clip often @Wini

And to your point @AUROPAL, no, another high paid senior executive is probably not what a company like this needs at present.

Sure, maybe they are very capable and will add a lot of value, but even then i'd prefer the incentive be structured around equity. That is, if they make it rain, they'll benefit along with all shareholders. If not, at least the business didn't need to support an excessive salary bill. If you're after a fancy title and big pay check, stay with the large caps.

Still, i say all of this without knowing the structure that has been offered, and Im sure Ana is a capable and conscientious person.

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