MANAGEMENT CHANGES AT WILLIAM HILL ONLINE
Friday October 19, 2012 : MANAGEMENT CHANGES AT WILLIAM HILL ONLINE
Birch on the way out
Management changes are in motion at William Hill Online, the joint internet gambling venture between William Hill plc and Playtech plc.
On Friday the company announced the following changes:
* Henry Birch is stepping down as Chief Executive Officer.
* Andrew Lee is appointed Managing Director with immediate effect, responsible for leading William Hill Online.
* Jamie Hart is appointed to the new role of Director of Customer Experience and Innovation with responsibility for the development of Sportsbook and Gaming platforms, and for innovation.
* Jürgen Reutter assumes the Head of Mobile role vacated by Andrew Lee. Jürgen brings valuable and extensive mobile-specific expertise.
"Having successfully grown the operational scale and product offering since 2008, the focus for William Hill Online is now intensifying around the customer, including personalisation, customer insight and customer services. This is a significant priority given the high proportion of UK betting and gaming customers who already have a William Hill account," said group CEO Ralph Topping.
Andrew Lee joined William Hill’s Corporate Development Office in March 2012 as Head of Business Integration and took on the role of interim Head of Mobile shortly thereafter. He has extensive experience of the leisure sector and a strong network in the gambling industry as a result of over 10 years working as a gambling analyst, primarily at Dresdner Kleinwort, where he was Head of the Travel and Leisure Research Team. Andrew qualified as a Chartered Accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. In his new role, he will be based at William Hill Online’s headquarters in Gibraltar.
Jamie Hart was part of the team that developed William Hill’s first betting website, having joined William Hill in 1999 after eight years working in Ladbrokes’ Retail business and three years in Darwin, Australia, setting up one of the first interactive betting sites in the world. He left the Group for a stint as Trading Director at Coral before returning as Sportsbook and Trading Director of William Hill Online. He has been a pivotal part of the William Hill Online management team since 2008, with a strong focus on innovations such as Tip Advisor. Jamie’s role will focus on product innovation and development of a new website over the next two years.
Mobile remains a key focus for William Hill Online and Jürgen Reutter’s appointment to the team brings valuable experience in this area, with 12 years’ experience in the mobile industry. He joined at the end of August from Buongiorno Group, the entertainment app developer and mobile services supplier. As Managing Director UK and International, he had strategic and operational responsibility for 200 employees in London, Munich, Madrid, Cape Town, Sydney, Moscow and Delhi. Previously, he held roles at Telefonica O2 Germany, T-Info, a T-Mobile/Deutsche Telekom company and Brokat Technologies AG, a global leader in mobile payment and mobile banking solutions.
