The former AIM-listed company Infoserve, which is based at Leeds Bradford airport, has appointed the company’s founder, Derek Oliver, as its new chief executive. Oliver was previously joint managing director of the company together with Jonathan Simpson.
The company which claims a turnover of £5m plus and employs 150 staff, operates Cityvisitor.co.uk and also manages (under licence) Yahoo! Local, a business directory on over 70 Football League websites and over 100 owned single industry directories.
The company says that it reaches over 2 million unique visitors a month across its network of sites.
Infoserve’s chairman Andrew Thirkill said: “Derek is exactly the right choice to lead Infoserve through its next phase of development with further digital solutions and revenue streams planned.
“The current climate has been thoroughly challenging, and despite this, the company has continued to experience success on many fronts. Infoserve is in a strong financial position with sustainable profits and new revenue initiatives in the pipeline.”
Derek Oliver
Oliver founded Infoserve in 1999, having previously been technical director at Pace Micro where he worked with fellow Infoserve non-executive director David Hood, the founder of Pace.
www.cityvisitor.co.uk, which launched in 2000, was one of the UK’s first online business directories and has subsequently been through a number of changes in direction. The site is now targeted as a ‘one-stop online marketing platform for advertisers’.
Infoserve withdrew from the AIM market in March 2011 and the company’s shares are now traded through its own matched bargain dealing facility.
