Guildford –based Lumesse provides SaaS-based Talent Management Systems. They started life as Stepstone Solutions back in 2003. In 2010 they separated from parent Stepstone in an HGCapital backed MBO. Following year they bought MrTed, rebranded as Lumesse and went on to buy Edvantage Group. Revenues of Euro76.3 were reported in 2011 (up c20% on the previous year) with EBITDA of Euro10.4m. They have 592 staff servicing c2000 customers in c70 countries. Lumesse claims a 94% customer subscription renewal rate.
Nick Discombe, Lumesse’s Chairman (CEO of Witness Systems to 2007) called me today with news that their CEO Matthew Parker (he’s been CEO for 10 years since its formation in 2003) had stepped down. Nick said that a new CEO from the US had been appointed who would take up his position in March. He couldn’t tell me his name until 22nd Jan 13. Very interestingly, and somewhat to my surprise, Chris Stone (former CEO of Northgate) has been appointed interim CEO. Also HGCapital will invest further in the business (‘tens of millions’ I was told)
I’ve known Chris Stone for a long time and have great respect for him. What I can’t really fathom is why he’s acting as an interim CEO when the new CEO is just a few months away. Chris is the kind of guy who you would use to come in, access strategy, make big changes and appoint the new CEO. So why is the reverse order being applied? Will Stone stick around when the new CEO is in place? If so, two might well be a crowd!