New Director
Leading New Zealand software company Aoraki Corporation has appointed former US computer industry executive Peter Helms
to their Board as an Executive Director, and named Mike Smith as the new Chief Executive of Cardinal Group, a division
of Aoraki.
Aoraki's Founder and Chief Executive Officer Gil Simpson says the appointment of Mr Helms signals the company's serious
intention to take JADE aggressively to a global market. "Peter adds a new dimension to our board with his background in
sales and marketing at an international level."
"Aoraki proved with LINC that we are a software development company equal to any in the world. With JADE we are now
learning how to become world-class software marketers, and Peter has made a major contribution to this endeavour as our
Director of Sales and Marketing." Mr Helms said the opportunities with JADE were enormous. "Aoraki's JADE software
programming product is more advanced than anything I have seen in either the United States or Europe. I am so certain
that JADE is going to be a global success that I moved my family across the world to work with Aor aki."
Before joining Aoraki Mr Helms spent 15 years in a variety of sales and marketing positions in the US with
multi-national computer company Unisys Corporation, running marketing programs in Europe, the Pacific Rim and Latin
America. Mr Helms was recruited to work in Aoraki's US division in September 1996, and appointed Director of Sales based
in Christchurch a year later. Born in the United States, Mr Helms originally emigrated to New Zealand with his family as
a teenager, studying at Auckland's King College and the Universi ty of Auckland, where he gained an MA in Political
Science.
New CEO For The Cardinal Group
Mike Smith, formerly a Cardinal Partner, has been appointed Chief Executive of the Cardinal Group.
Through a grouping of partnerships similar to a law or accounting firm, Cardinal provides IT services such as consulting
and software development to large corporates throughout Australia and New Zealand. "Mike has been one of our strongest
performing Partners since joining Cardinal last year and he will bring the same drive and determination to the Chief
Executive's role," says Gil Simpson. The post had been vacant for some time, with Mr Helms carrying out the role in
addition to his other Group responsibilities.
Mr Smith said he was delighted with the appointment. "Cardinal has some distinct competitive advantages in the IT
services market. In particular our expertise in JADE, our speed of delivery and our strong focus on customising software
for our customers, rather than trying to simply fit a package to their requirements."
"We have developed strong partnerships with organisations seeking to maintain and grow their competitive advantage.
Using JADE - as an alternative to a traditional ERP choice - we have delivered platforms that enable this
differentiation to be realised and leveraged." Cardinal has built some world leading e-commerce solutions in sectors
such as banking, utilities, health, retailing and ports, and now has considerable Intellectual Property in these lines
of business. "As Chief Executive, I would like to build on these achievements and expand our customer base t hroughout
Australia and New Zealand."
Mr Smith has an MBA from the University of Canterbury and completed a Thesis focusing on electronic commerce. Previously
he spent 12 years with IBM working within the Finance and Banking sector, as South Island Manager, and latterly in a
senior business development role focussed on strategic alli ances, mergers and acquisitions.
About Aoraki Corporation
Aoraki Corporation is a private company based in Christchurch, New Zealand with offices throughout Australasia and in
the United Kingdom. Aoraki employs 400 staff and had 1998 revenues of around $NZ60m. Aoraki has two divisions, JADE
Group and Cardinal Group. JADE Group develops, markets and sells JADE internationally. JADE is a software programming
technology used to build enterprise-class, transaction-based business systems, particularly high volume e-commerce
applications. For more informatio n visit www.discoverjade.com.
Cardinal Group is a leading IT services company with offices in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. For more
information visit www.cardinal-group.com.
ENDS