Canstar Announces New CEO

Monday, 29 January 2024 - Canstar Group is today announcing the appointment of Mark Gracey as Managing Director and Group CEO, following the retirement at the end of February of long-serving Managing Director and Group CEO, Andrew Spicer.

Mark brings deep industry experience to the Canstar Group, having worked for over eight years with leading UK comparison site MoneySuperMarket.com Group PLC (MONY) [MONY:LSE, £1.3b Mkt cap], where he was an Executive team member. Mark led several of MONY's strategic initiatives including developing the mobile Apps for two of its brands, MoneySuperMarket and MoneySavingExpert, merging TravelSupermarket with Icelolly.com, and completing c£150m of acquisitions for the Group.

From 2018 to 2023, Mark was the Chair of the UK's leading B2B digital mortgage comparison platform, Podium Solutions.

Announcing the appointment, Canstar Group Chairman and Founder, Andrew Willink, comments, “We are thrilled to welcome Mark, who joins us as only the third Group CEO in our 32-year history. We have many exciting growth opportunities ahead and Mark brings to our business highly relevant international experience and a track record in building consumer-centric, highly credible and trusted digital financial services platforms.”

“Andrew Spicer has led the business for the last 16 years. Under Andrew’s stewardship, Canstar has grown into one of the most trusted brands whose sites are visited each month by more than two million Australians and New Zealanders. We now track institutional excellence with Canstar's Star Ratings in more than 330 categories in Australia and New Zealand, including insurance, banking, broadband and mobile phones to help households make more informed decisions.

“On behalf of all of the Canstar Group family, including our team, board of directors and shareholders, as well as our incredibly important corporate and retail customers, we sincerely thank Andrew for his outstanding contributions over the last 16 years.”

Incoming Canstar Group CEO, Mark Gracey comments, "I am incredibly excited to lead this great brand and team. Canstar has established a well-deserved reputation for transparency and simplicity, which has many parallels with the MoneySuperMarket Group. In the UK, independent comparison services are widely used but are still relatively unknown to Australians and New Zealanders. I look forward to continuing Andrew and the team's work and mission."

Outgoing Managing Director and Group CEO, Andrew Spicer says, “Very few people have had the opportunity to build such a trusted brand, visited online by 12 million people annually who are seeking out help, and with so many wonderful institutional relationships across so many verticals. It has been a privilege to work with the talented Board, management and team at Canstar for 16 years. I am also very excited for Mark to be joining as our new Group CEO. We have known him since 2016 and have been impressed with what we feel he can now bring to the Canstar Group, as its new leader. I wish him the very best.”

For more information about the Canstar Group please visit our site www.canstar.com.au/about-canstar

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