Auckland, NZ—Jan 23, 2018
Kimbal Riley to Become Vista Group CEO
Murray Holdaway moves to role as Chief Product Officer
Vista Group International (NZX/ASX) has today announced that Kimbal Riley will take over as Group CEO from Murray Holdaway. Mr Holdaway will take up the position of Chief Product Officer (CPO) for Vista Group, and will continue in his role as an Executive Director on the Vista Group board. This has taken place as part of a succession planning process and will deliver a seamless transition within the business.
Mr Riley has had an extensive career in senior executive roles in the IT and Services industries in New Zealand and overseas. He joined Vista Group four years ago, with the past two years as CEO of Vista Entertainment Solutions (VES), which is responsible for the largest proportion of the Group’s revenue. He has been focused on building scale in the business and under his leadership VES has grown its global footprint by an additional 20 markets, extending its reach to more than 80 countries. VES has continued to sustain over 20% revenue growth per year under Mr Riley’s leadership and has been the high growth driver that has helped to open additional international market opportunities for other businesses in the Group.
Vista Group Chair Kirk Senior has praised Mr Holdaway for his exceptional leadership of the company, which he co-founded in 1996. Vista has grown to become a dominant provider of cinema management, film distribution and customer analytics software in the global film industry. Its subsidiary companies provide products and services to multiple film industry segments.
“Murray has shown great vision and expertise in leading a team to create and grow Vista Group, one of New Zealand’s top performing technology companies. His strengths continue to lie in product innovation and customer service and with the diversification of Vista since our 2014 public listing, we want him to focus in the area where he has traditionally provided the greatest value, which is product innovation. This is core to the Group’s success, the heart and soul of what we do” Mr Senior says.
“Now, after more than two decades building and leading Vista Group it is time for him to hand the leadership reins to Kimbal Riley, his natural successor. We are extremely fortunate that we will retain Murray’s expertise and critical strengths in his new role as Chief Product Officer.”
Mr Riley says he is honoured to have the opportunity to be CEO of Vista Group, which is poised for the next stage in its evolution, and he is delighted to be working alongside its visionary co-founder.
“Murray has one of the best understandings of the film industry’s data and information flows of anyone in this business. The company has a number of exciting challenges ahead this year, as we continue to develop world-leading software that delivers innovation for cinemas and distributors. This will unlock the potential for big data insights that will create more exciting experiences for movie goers. I enjoy helping build businesses and with someone like Murray as product visionary it makes the job twice as exciting.”
Mr Holdaway says he is looking forward to taking on the CPO role, which will enable him to support Vista Group’s CEO’s and their teams by working across the company’s product divisions to boost innovation and expand offerings to its global customer base.
“This transition comes at a pivotal time in our development, when some of the companies in the Group are ready to introduce new products and service offerings to the industry. In light of that, supporting product development and execution is critical; I will be focusing on the product direction of the Group at a time when a number of significant new and generational changes are progressing in individual companies, as they evolve their products to meet the needs of our customers and the wider market.”
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have supported me as CEO over the past 22 years. We have a passionate and talented team at Vista Group and it’s been my privilege to lead them.”
The change in leadership is effective from 03 April 2018, when Mr Riley becomes Vista Group CEO and Mr Holdaway its Chief Product Officer.
