Dubber has named Matthew Bellizia as its new Chief Executive Officer.
Bellizia begins his role this Tuesday, September 10, with Dubber highlighting his “extensive and relevant global technology business experience”. He replaces interim CEO Peter Pawlowitsch, who has held the role since February.
“I’m very excited to be joining Dubber and leading the company on the next part of its growth journey,” Bellizia said.
Dubber has a number of key fundamental attributes, including strong customer retention and a technology platform with over 225 communication service provider relationships to deliver its exciting conversational intelligence products. It presents a unique opportunity to build from this strong base and streamline the business to align with the company’s dual objectives of growth and profitability.”
Bellizia is Dubber’s new permanent CEO after his predecessor, Steve McGovern (also Dubber’s Managing Director at the time), was suspended by the company after the business uncovered a financial anomaly in its accounts. Pawlowitsch stepped up as acting CEO.
The discovery occurred during the audit review of Dubber’s half-year accounts at the end of 2023, prompting the company to notify the market that it was attempting to locate $26.6 million, which was believed to be held in a term deposit account.
Dubber adds that Pawlowitsch will return to his previous role as part-time Executive Director.
More On Bellizia’s Background
For 20 years, Bellizia co-founded and served as CEO of MTData, a company providing software and mobile technologies to industries like transport, mining, and government. Operating across several regions, Dubber highlights that MTData grew to $70 million in revenue and 160 staff globally. Telstra acquired MTData’s transport division in 2017, where Bellizia remained CEO until 2023, while A2B Australia purchased its taxi division in 2018.
Bellizia began his career as a software engineer, followed by roles as Software Manager, Product Manager, and General Manager of International Sales and Marketing before his appointment as CEO in 2003.
“Matthew has extensive experience in global technology businesses,” said Dubber Chairman Neil Wilson. “Matthew has a deep understanding of the importance of data in driving business outcomes, which aligns with the Dubber solution’s current and future solution direction. He has the skills and experience to lead the company to its target of operating cash flow break-even in FY25 and to build market share and revenue growth into the future.”
Dubber’s Difficult 2024
The discovery of the accounts anomaly sparked a severely challenging few months for Dubber, with the company subsequently describing the incident as “the Event”.
Dubber’s preliminary investigation following the audit review process found that the fund may have been used for “other purposes” in February.
By March, approximately $3.4 million of the funds had been recovered, but Dubber continued to explore options to recover the remaining balance. The company had referred the matter to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) without making any allegations of wrongdoing at that time.
In a statement from the Board of Directors delivered to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), Dubber said:
“As part of the audit review process for its 31 December 2023 half-year accounts, the Company has become aware of inconsistencies in respect of funds that have been held on behalf of the Company by a third-party trustee. A preliminary investigation by the Company has uncovered that funds, purported to have been held in a term deposit account, may have been applied for other purposes and are not currently available to the Company.”
In April, Dubber then underwent a shareholder prospectus to “bring ordinary business creditors back into normal payment terms, costs associated with the company’s financial investigation into the alleged misappropriation of funds”.
In its most recent earnings report, published at the end of July for Q4 FY24, Dubber said that its work on recovering funds was “progressing”.
Meanwhile, Dubber assured investors the business was stable last week despite stopping trading for two days.
The business asked the ASE to halt trading on Wednesday, August 28, and started again on Friday, August 30. The vendor highlighted a pending announcement regarding “potential adjustments to its FY2023 financial statements” as its prompt.
Dubber restated its FY23 statement alongside its FY2022 earnings after identifying multiple irregularities in its accounting – some going back to 2017. Citing an example, Andrew Demery, Chief Financial Officer at Dubber, told investors during a webinar at the end of August: “The major item we’ve identified is an under-provision for employment-related taxes, predominantly relating to 2022 and prior financial years.”
After being pressed by financial analysts on the need to secure new debt funding, Pawlowitsch promised to address “perceived gaps in the balance sheet through various mechanisms”.
Dubber told UC Today this week that there has been no fresh update on the progress of the recovery of funds.
from UC Today https://ift.tt/ir2G0lC
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