Australian IT services provider Oakton has promoted one of its senior staffers to the post of executive general manager of operations, a role which appears to mirror that of departed COO Steve Parker.
Parker, previously the Australia and New Zealand managing director of IT services giant Unisys, had held the Oakton role for just a year before he left Oakton in February this year. Oakton declined to say whether he had resigned or been made redundant.
However, in an email to staff seen by ZDNet.com.au, Oakton CEO Neil Wilson recently announced Bruce Minahan, who had overseen Oakton's integration of its Acumen acquisition, would take the newly created operations effective immediately.
Oakton's territorial general managers as well as its general managers of human resources and sales and marketing will report to Minahan, who will report to Wilson. Minahan had been playing "a critical role" in the operational review Oakton was currently conducting, Wilson wrote.
In a separate internal email, Oakton also announced the appointment of another senior role. The company's vice president of its Indian operation, Phil O'Brien, would return to Australia after two years overseas to be the company's general manager of National Managed Services, according to the email. O'Brien will also have a separate role focusing on managed services work in Victoria.
In India, according to the email, O'Brien had established "from scratch" Oakton's operations in Hyderabad, with the Indian team now having over 100 staff. Dennis Papakyriakopoulos will now lead Oakton's Indian operation in his stead.
The news comes as Oakton's share price has spiked north over the past few weeks, from a low of just over 60 cents in mid-March to hit $1.22 at the time of publication. Over the same period several of Oakton's executives have bought large parcels of stock in the company.
On 26 March this year, Oakton executive chairman Paul Holyoake bought some 900,000 shares, bringing his total share of the company to 8.81 per cent. On the same day, Wilson bought 450,000 shares, bringing his total up to 2,649,616.
A day earlier, executive director Robert Kennedy bought 60,000 shares through a super fund, bringing the total number associated with him up to 723,995. Wilson had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.
Of course it is the COO, renamed to avoid the Redundancy question on Parker departure.
CEO not available for comment, that's because the real CEO is the Chairman. CEO barely seen or heard....