Jerome Laredo has been appointed chief executive of Atex’s Asia-Pacific region under changes which see the retirement of industry stalwart Ross Wood.
Laredo, who joined the company in 2008, has more than 15 years of software sales experience and was most recently sales vice president for Asia.
Previously he had worked for Nstein Technologies, Teleglobe and Ixiasoft in Europe, Middle East and Africa roles. He holds an MSc in international business from HEC Montreal, and has lived in France, Canada, the USA and UK.
Atex group chief executive Gary Stokes paid tribute to Wood, describing him as “a stalwart of the news media industry for more than 30 years who has successfully led the Atex business in Australia and New Zealand for the last ten”.
Ross Wood joined News Limited in 1979 and was group computer services manager there from 1983-1996. He was one of a number of Australian News personnel deployed to help get the parent group’s Wapping, London, production site into operation during the 1985-86 dispute with Fleet Street unions which saw 6000 trade union members go on strike.
He was chief technology officer at Fairfax from 1996 until joining Atex in 2002 where he served primarily as ANZ chief executive.
Retirement will include “quite a bit of travel” with Wood spending more time in China, touring New Zealand and on an extended boating trip with friends around Australia’s ‘top end’.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our customers, staff, colleagues and my family for their great support over the past many years,” he says.