Veteran of the Irish IT industry Raomal Perera is to step down as chief executive of the company he founded in 1999 and will become chairman of the company, it has emerged.
Before setting up Network365, a mobile payments provider that merged with iPIN to form Valista, Perera co-founded and led the team that also founded and built Isocor and led it to an initial public offering (IPO) on Nasdaq in 1996 and subsequent sale to Critical Path in 2000 for $450m.
Perera was one of 40 entrepreneurs worldwide that were invited to join the prestigious World Economic Forum and was the first entrepreneur to be presented with the Irish Software Association’s Outstanding Software Achievement Award.
It is understood that Perera will remain full-time with Valista as chairman of the company and will manage the board of directors as the company expands into the US, Europe, Asia and Japan.
Perera will be replaced in the chief executive role by Arlen Adams, previously vice-president of international sales.
Prior to joining Valista, Adams held a UK board position with Sun Microsystems where she managed a €1bn a year business and delivered growth in excess of 20pc.
“Our strategy is to become a significant player in the rapidly emerging convergence market, which is estimated to be a trillion-dollar revenue opportunity,” Adams explained.
Use Valista’s technology now exceeds 150 million users with over 3,000 merchants utilising its merchant integration technology.
Commenting on his company’s achievements, Perera said: “Valista is one of Ireland’s most successful indigenous technology companies.
“From our headquarters in Ireland we have successfully built a global reputation for our solutions suite with international brands such as America Online, Vodafone, 3, NTT DoCoMo Orange and France Telecom’s w-HA.”
By John Kennedy
