Datalex appoints Sean Corkery as deputy chairman

Travel software company Datalex has appointed Sean Corkery as a non-executive director and deputy chairman of its board with immediate effect.

Mr Corkery is the chairman of Denis O'Brien's engineering services company Actavo, formerly known as Siteserv, and previously held the role of chief executive there.

Datalex last month revealed billionaire Dermot Desmond will charge it a 10 per cent annual rate of interest for a €6.14 million loan to the troubled Dublin-listed firm as part of a funding package to shore up its finances.

Mr Desmond’s investment vehicle, IIU, which already owned 26.4 per cent of the company, bought €3.86 million of new shares in the business at €1 each.

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That brought his holding to 29.9 per cent, the maximum level an investor can take in an Irish-quoted company before triggering a mandatory takeover offer.

In a statement to Euronext Dublin on Friday, Datalex described Mr Corkery as “a technology industry veteran with over 35 years’ experience in strategic leadership and operational roles internationally”.

“Sean has held a number of senior management and board roles with information technology and telecoms companies including Actavo, Dell, Esat Telecom, AST Computers/Samsung and Apple,” it said.

“Sean is currently chairman of the Actavo Group, CTI Global and Hibernia College and is a non-executive director at the Digicel Group and Nualtra.”

Separately, Datalex confirmed that the process to appoint a new chief financial officer is “progressing well” and the company expects to make an announcement in the coming weeks.

Datalex chairman Paschal Taggart said: “We are very pleased that Sean is joining Datalex as deputy chairman. Sean brings significant operational experience to Datalex that will be extremely valuable at this important juncture for our business.

“Board renewal remains a core focus as we develop and we will be making further announcements in due course.”

Mr Corkery said he was “happy to be joining Datalex at this crucial time in the company’s development”.

“I very much look forward to working with the board and wider Datalex team as we continue the process of instituting the changes required post recent events and grow the business for the benefit of Datalex’s shareholders,” he said.