28th Feb 2006 07:05
PartyGaming Plc28 February 2006 28 February 2006 PartyGaming Plc Board Change: Richard Segal, Chief Executive Officer, to Leave PartyGaming PartyGaming Plc ("the Company"), the world's leading online gaming company,announces today that Richard Segal, Chief Executive Officer, will be leaving theCompany by mutual consent on or before 1 June 2006. At the time of last year's IPO, Richard agreed to commute each week toPartyGaming's headquarters in Gibraltar. Given the rapid growth of the Company,he and the Board agree that the CEO now needs to be located in Gibraltar alongwith all the other executive Directors. Following discussions with his family,Richard has declined a request by the Board to move to Gibraltar and willtherefore be leaving the Company. Richard joined PartyGaming in August 2004 following a highly successful 16-yearcareer in the leisure industry with Rank which culminated with him leading thebuy-out and subsequent sale of Odeon Cinemas. Since his appointment atPartyGaming, he has been instrumental in creating the management structurerequired for the Group's next phase of development. In particular, he helped tobuild a highly experienced and industry leading management team ahead of lastyear's successful IPO, following which PartyGaming joined the FTSE-100 index. Under his leadership, PartyGaming has seen its revenues grow to $977.7 millionin 2005 and clean EBITDA1 increase to $583.7 million. He has also overseen thestrategic development of the business including the highly successfulintroduction and cross-selling of blackjack on PartyPoker.com, the conclusion ofthe Group's 'skins' strategy and last week's joint launch of the Party-brandedintegrated platform and PartyCasino.com. A formal process to identify and recruit a replacement is underway. Richard Segal, Chief Executive, said: "My time at PartyGaming has been one of enormous challenge and great excitementand we have achieved a huge amount in a very short space of time. The decisionto leave has been very difficult given the success already achieved and theexciting prospects ahead. "This is a very fast moving and dynamic industry and I am incredibly proud ofeverything that everyone at PartyGaming has achieved to further our progress andprepare the ground for even greater things to come." Michael Jackson, non-executive Chairman, added: "PartyGaming's IPO and subsequent success has been due in large part to theleadership of Richard Segal, the Group's CEO. It is therefore with regret thatwe are announcing Richard's departure. On behalf of all stakeholders we thankhim for his substantial contribution and wish him every success for the future." 1 before IPO-related expenses, share-option charges and skin-related settlementcosts -ends- Contacts: PartyGaming Plc +44 (0)20 7337 0100Peter Reynolds, Director of Investor RelationsJohn Shepherd, Director of Corporate Communications Financial Dynamics +44 (0)20 7831 3113Edward Bridges / Juliet Clarke This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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