AdviserLogic announced today that Mr David Smith has been appointed as a consultant to the AdviserLogic Group. Mr Smith will be appointed to the Board as a Non-Executive Chairman in due course.
Mr Smith is a well-respected industry figure in accounting, software development and financial services circles; having created a successful software business including a leading SMSF administration platform that was sold to Solution 6 (now part of MYOB) in 1999.David also spent a number of years on the Board of CountPlus and was briefly CEO of Class Limited prior to its recent IPO.
He is currently also assisting a range of companies as consultant, Non-Executive Director or Non-Executive Chairman. Mr Smith was formerly Managing Partner of PKF (now BDO), Sydney and is a past President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (now Chartered Accountants Australia+New Zealand). He was also an investor in and Non-Executive Chairman of a Life Risk Licensee that has since been absorbed into Macquarie Group.
“We’re honoured that a person of David’s calibre has agreed to take on this very important role as we systematically move to the next level of corporate development; building on our more than eight years of success to date.
“His expertise as a ‘steady and experienced hand’ will be critical to the AdviserLogic Group as we take advantage of the restructuring, disruption and aggregation that Financial Services and Accounting are experiencing at present and over the horizon,” said Daniel Gara, Head of Product Development, AdviserLogic.
Mr Gara believes that emerging specialist firms such as his require deep market experience from the likes of Mr Smith, as much as it needs the best software programmers.
“Much discussion in our industry has been around the effects of FOFA, the demise and (we believe) resurgence of boutique players and rise of the bank models. No one foresaw that FOFA would encourage more non-aligned players, no less than that some banks would be selling off insurance businesses and streamlining their services back to branch level.
“You need deep market knowledge and experience to navigate these types of changes,” said Mr Gara who is also a director of AdviserLogic.
Mr Smith will focus on Strategy and Governance for AdviserLogic as well as assisting with reviewing M&A prospects in the marketplace.
“A casualty of the post-FOFA market will be small or even mid-sized players that just offer similar services that are available down the road or over the internet. We see opportunities energing from consolidation and, conversely, further disruption amongst product and service suppliers,” said Mr Smith.
Mr Gara expects to be announcing more senior appointments to the firm shortly.
