Vocus Group CEO leaves the company

Vocus Group has ousted its CEO George Horth and commenced a search for a replacement.

Horth was appointed group CEO in February 2016, following the merger between Vocus Group and M2. Prior to joining Vocus he was CEO of M2 for nearly five years.

Horth survived an attempted leadership spill just eight months into his tenure as CEO, leading to the departure of founder James Spenceley and board member Tony Grist.

But Vocus subsequently issued two consecutive profit downgrades in a six-month period, with Horth admitting that the company is having trouble integrating its various acquisitions — including M2, Nextgen Networks, Amcom — into its operations.

As a result of these challenges, Vocus and Horth have decided “by mutual agreement” that there should be a change in leadership, the company said in a statement.

“Geoff has served as Vocus CEO during undoubtedly the most challenging chapter in its journey to date, wrestling with the simultaneous tasks of integrating several large, complex businesses, combining different corporate cultures and while the Australian telco sector was under substantial structural upheaval, in light of the rollout of the nbn and the exponential growth in demand for data networks,” Vocus Group Chairman Vaughan Bowen said.

“Geoff leaves the company with the sincere appreciation of the board, for his unrelenting endeavour under the most trying of circumstances and with the wide-reaching respect of our executive and our team, as well our customers, suppliers and other stakeholders.”

The board nominating committee is overseeing the search process for a new group CEO, the company said. Vocus Group’s current chief executive for Wholesale and International Michael Simmons will step up as interim group CEO while a permanent replacement is found.

Simmons was the founding CEO and managing director of SP Telemedia, which merged with the former Total Peripherals Group to create TPG Telecom in 2008.

Pictured: Geoff Horth, courtesy Vocus Group.

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