IFS has announced the appointment of Mark Moffat as its new CEO. Darren Roos has been appointed as the company’s chair of the board. Roos takes over from Jonas Persson, who assumed the post when EQT acquired the business in July 2020.
The move follows on from two appointments that were made last year when the company appointed Max Roberts as its new Chief Operating Officer and Belinda Finch as Chief Information Officer. Those two appointments saw Michael Ouissi and Sal Laher moving to IGTI, the Holding Group of IFS. It is not clear if Roos is taking a role in the holding group. However, he has stepped down from the role of Chairman of the board at Workwave, the second company in the group.
Roos was appointed CEO in 2018 and has led the company through its acquisition by EQT and the further investment by Hg and TA Associates in 2022. Under his leadership, IFS has produced tremendous growth. Moving its products and, subsequently, much of the customer base to its cloud solutions. It has also started to win bigger contracts. 79% of revenues are now recurring, up from 36% in 2018. That growth has been achieved across the globe with wins across its industry sectors.
Darren Roos, Chair of the Board at IFS, commented, “I am thrilled to appoint Mark as my successor. He has a proven track record, brings a strong network, and is a great leader that people want to follow. I am proud of all that has been achieved since I joined IFS and want to thank the thousands of women and men throughout the business who have lived our shared values and made our customers successful.
“I am pleased to be continuing my journey with IFS, albeit in a different capacity. There is so much opportunity in the market, and, together with the Board, I will work with Mark and his team to ensure we effectively capture it. I take over as Chair of the Board from Jonas Persson, who I want to thank for his great governance and counsel over the years.”
Who is Moffat
Moffat was appointed Chief Customer Officer of IFS in July 2022, when he joined from PwC, where he held various roles. He will assume the role immediately. It seems like the December appointments paved the way for the leadership change that might have been planned when he originally joined.
Moffat commented, “It is a great honor for me to lead IFS as we embark on this next chapter of growth. The business has immensely strong foundations to build upon, and we have been putting all the right ingredients in place to continue to deliver on our strategy: a differentiated proposition, a hugely advanced and capable AI-based product, an engaged customer base, a motivated partner ecosystem, and of course our talented employee base. I want to recognize and thank Darren for the impact he has had as my predecessor. I look forward to working with him in his new capacity as IFS’s Chair of the Board.”
Johannes Reichel, partner at EQT (majority owner of IFS), added, “Darren and the leadership team have delivered phenomenal results in turning IFS into one of the fastest-growing software businesses operating at scale. Mark has the right background and ambition that will enable IFS to take advantage of the opportunity ahead, and we look forward to him partnering with Darren as our new Chair of the Board. I also want to thank Jonas Persson who leaves the IFS Board, having been the Chairperson since EQT acquired the business. He will continue to serve as a Senior Advisor to EQT and is the Chairperson at several other EQT-owned software businesses.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean?
There are two sides to this announcement. The first, and probably most interesting, is understanding what Moffat will bring and how the company will evolve under his leadership. Will he have an impact on its culture? Can we expect further leadership changes in the C-Suite? Roos was successful in energising the company and leading it into the cloud era. Can Moffat take it into a position where it more regularly competes with SAP?
Roos appears to have stepped back from an exec role. The fact that he has also stepped down as chair of the board at Workwave is based on his LinkedIn Profile. Though WorkWave still lists him as the board chair. Will Roos take a more active role in IGTI? If so, will he look to bring another vendor into the IFS Group? Will he oversee a divestment of IFS? With Moffat having CFO experience, could IFS be looking at an IPO? 2024 could be a year of change for IFS, and it will be interesting to see what happens.
