Moving on...

LinkedIn reminded me recently that I was 23 years in Version 1. I joined when my wife Cliona was expecting our first child, that same child (Tony) recently started work.?

Those milestones prompted me to reassess what I wanted to do. I had promised myself years ago that by the time I turned 50 I'd go on to do something else. I turn 52 in January. The temptation is to hang on until there's a perfect time to go, but I've realised that in my role there is never a perfect time - there's always another deal, another client meeting, another Board meeting or another new hire to get settled that seems to make it impossible to make a move now.

It was during a fantastic family holiday to the Far East that I finally made the decision to rip the plaster off and make the change and so effective today I've ceased being CEO of Version 1, a role I've had for the last 7.5 years.

I'm going to transition to a new role on the Board, retaining my shareholding, and continuing to drive Version 1 forward, but in a different way.

I'm immensely proud of what we've achieved as a Company to date. Whatever success we've had has been because of our core values, values that preceded my appointment as CEO, and which will live long after me. We've created a truly special culture, a family-friendly place to work, one that treats its people and customers with equal importance as its financial success and one which puts the interests of our communities, wider society and the environment front and centre of our mission.

I joined a brilliant small bunch of 30 people in Temple Bar in Dublin in 2001, became CEO of an equally brilliant team of 850 people in 2017 and leave an organisation of 3,500 superb people spread across Ireland, UK, India, Spain, Slovenia, Spain and Slovenia.

I'm proud to depart in a year that will represent our highest revenue year ever, with strong growth visible for next year; where we've once again achieved world-class scores in the global Great Place to Work survey, and where our customers are giving us a market leading Net Promoter Score. I'm also extremely proud and get much more satisfaction out of how we look out for each other, how we've responded and helped those who needed our help at a moment of crisis and how we're a much more diverse organisation than we once were. One of the last things I did as CEO as to represent the Company to pay our respects at the memorial service of our late colleague Rachel Codd. The number of her colleagues there that day spoke volumes to me, and indeed her family, that Version 1 is truly a special organisation.

Some years ago, we set ourselves a crazy goal of achieving a billion-euro valuation. We achieved that last year making us one of only a small handful of Irish companies to ever achieve this goal.?That achievement was only possible because of our focus on core values, and because of the loyalty of our customers and the continued excellence, personal commitment and drive of each one of our consultants.

It's time for someone else to set and achieve the next goal.

Thank you to each one of our customers, each one of our people (past and present) and the teams that have worked closely with me over the last 7.5 years. I won't pick out any individual - you know who you are.

I've loved my time as CEO. I've made lots of mistakes, but hopefully along the way I've played my (small) part in creating something special, a place that can continue to grow and remain special and continue to achieve great things.?

I'm looking forward to moving on to the next phase of my life, thankful that I and my family are in great health and Please God it will stay that way. There'll be more running, more time to spend at Villa Park, more holidays and more time with my family, which they are cautiously excited about! Most of all I want to thank my brilliant family, Cliona, Tony, Róisín, Aisling, Bláthnaid and Tomás for putting up with me over the last 7.5 years and I promise to make the next phase as fun filled as the last has!

So, thank you to everyone who have made this a truly epic and enjoyable journey. I've loved every second of it.?

Slán

Tom

Up the Villa