TECHNOLOGYONE FOUNDER ADRIAN DI MARCO STEPS DOWN AS CEO

TECHNOLOGYONE (ASX: TNE) founder Adrian Di Marco has formally stepped down from his role as CEO after 30 years with one of Australia's first enterprise technology businesses.

Di Marco will retain his post as executive chairman and long standing COO Edward Chung will take over as CEO from May 23.

"Today we celebrate the 30-year anniversary since starting in a small demountable at the front of a hides processing plant in the outer Brisbane suburb of Hemmant to becoming Australia's largest enterprise software company and an ASX top 150 publicly listed company," Di Marco says.

"I believe having now reached our 30-year milestone and considering the significant opportunities ahead of us, it is the perfect time to commence the transition to a new generation," he says.

"I will continue to be actively involved in the business and I very much look forward to working with Edward and the executive team as well as continuing to work with our R&D teams."

Di Marco is one of the longest-serving CEOs of an ASX-listed company and he defied the expectations of the business community in the 1980s that his enterprise would fail. Instead he turned TechnologyOne into one of Australia's success stories.

According to Di Marco, he has indicated in the past he would step down.

"These changes have been a long time in the planning and it will be no surprise to the market," Di Marco says.

"It has been openly discussed for the last few years with shareholders and staff."

Di Marco says over the next 10 years the company will roll out its TechnologyOne cloud and will continue to expand in the UK and other countries.

With the announcement, TechnologyOne reaffirmed its market guidance for the full year. It posted a 16 per cent rise in full year net profit and seventeenth consecutive year of record revenues in November.

At around 1.30pm, TNE shares were up by half a percent to $5.24.