SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 13, 2005 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- SPL WorldGroup, a leading provider of mission-critical software solutions for the global utility market, announced today the appointment of Larry Hagewood as the company's new president and CEO.
Hagewood comes to SPL with over 20 years of executive experience and success at a series of software companies serving many of the same markets as SPL. He has been President and CEO of n2n Technologies, President and CEO of Mincom's Americas organization and President and CEO of Paragon Consulting. He also held executive positions at Tava Technologies, Indus International and Elsag Bailey Systems Group.
"As CEO of SPL, my focus will be to fulfill the strategy behind the SPL vision," Hagewood said. "This comes in two parts: delivering best-of-breed, utility-specific applications and providing our customers the option of an integrated, end-to-end application suite."
"To achieve this dual vision," Hagewood continued, "we will build on and encompass the strengths of our customers, our employees, and our owners. Together, we will use SPL's outstanding development program to enhance the value of our current products. And, we will expand our product suite with new applications that help our customers better respond to their customer and market changes."
Commenting on the search for a new CEO, Lawrence Gilson, Chairman of SPL, said, "We sought a proven executive who is well versed in enterprise business processes and the IT needs of utilities and similar enterprises. We looked for a leader who could capitalize on SPL's product strengths, reputation for excellent customer support, and international market position -- not just in Europe and Australia, where SPL is already firmly established -- but also in the Middle East and Asia, where SPL has enjoyed a series of important recent wins."
"Larry Hagewood clearly meets these requirements," Gilson said. "He has honed his leadership skills in start-ups backed by venture capital, at mid-sized high-tech growth companies, and at a multi-billion dollar Fortune 500 corporation. He has successfully completed three IPOs and more than 20 acquisitions. Without exception, he has led his companies to substantial increases in revenue, profit, and market value. And because of his experience selling software into the utility industry, he is already well known to a number of SPL customers."
In making the CEO announcement, Gilson also expressed the Board's appreciation to SPL Senior Vice President and chief legal officer Richard Zolezzi, the company's interim leader over the past few months. "Richard's deep knowledge of and commitment to SPL led to real accomplishment in the market and within the Company while he served as our interim leader. My fellow directors and I very much appreciate his positive impact in this special role, as we do his ongoing contribution to SPL."
SPL (www.splwg.com) delivers the proven software applications that help utilities around the world achieve competitive advantage and excellence in business performance, while ensuring a lower total cost of technology ownership. SPL solutions in customer care and billing, enterprise asset and work management, mobile workforce management, and outage and distribution management are specifically designed for energy, water, and service companies. Working with systems-integration and technology partners around the world, SPL has an unparalleled record of implementation success. SPL focuses on clients' return on investment and fosters long-term relationships based on confidence and trust.
###
