MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA--(Marketwired - April 04, 2013) - IDT Australia Ltd (ASX: IDT) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Paul MacLeman as Chief Executive Officer of the Company, effective from 15 April 2013.
Dr. MacLeman has led a number of companies and businesses through significant turnaround and expansion programmes, successfully transitioning geographically or sector restricted business to new markets. As with IDT Ltd, these businesses have had sound business and asset foundations but required a re-focussing of strategy to generate maximum value for investors.
In his most recent executive role, Dr. MacLeman was the Chief Executive Officer of Melbourne based biotechnology company Genetic Technologies Limited (GTG) where he led a significant turnaround of the business, building on the non-proprietary genomics capability through acquisition and US launch of new assets to create a growing global cancer diagnostics business. GTG was a corporate turnaround, having lost ninety percent of its market cap since listing on the NASDAQ in the early 2000s. During his stewardship GTG was the top performing microcap in its segment on NASDAQ for 2011, having risen 434.6% since the start of the year.
"I am very excited to join IDT," said Dr. MacLeman. "IDT is a true 'blue chip' Australian biotech, with pharmaceutical development expertise and specialised API and finished product manufacturing facilities and Phase I clinical operations second to none. My focus will be on utilising this solid platform to deliver strong and sustainable growth for the Company."
Chairman and Founder of IDT, Dr. Graeme Blackman OAM, welcomed the appointment of Dr. MacLeman as the company's new CEO: "IDT has been through a challenging period in recent times as the traditional fee for service model of the business faces increasing competition from low cost alternative providers in China and India and other countries and from the strong Australian dollar. With his strong strategic, M&A, operational and technical background, Dr. MacLeman is ideally placed to leverage the existing outstanding technical and scientific expertise of IDT and to lead the company's next phase of business diversification into IP and product acquisitions and to rebuild shareholder value in the company.