Adrian Di Marco quits TechnologyOne, plans retirement

Adrian Di Marco, the outspoken businessman who took the company from start-up to ASX-listed software firm will retire.

Adrian Di Marco is stepping down as chairman of Technology One. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

TechnologyOne founder Adrian Di Marco, the outspoken businessman who took the company from start-up to one of the most successful software firms on the ASX, will resign as its executive chairman.

“Today’s announcement is the final step of a carefully planned transition, that started with the appointment of our long serving chief operating officer Edward Chung to the role of CEO in 2017, the renewal of our board over the last five years, and the recruitment of a very experienced deputy chair Pat O’Sullivan,” Mr Di Marco said.

Mr Di Marco’s decision to leave the company arrived midway through TechnologyOne’s annual general meeting on Wednesday.

“I am retiring from TechnologyOne,” he told those in attendance.

“I wanted to share it all with you today. It has been an amazing journey that started 35 years ago in 1987.”

Adrian Di Marco at TechnologyOne in 1999. Picture: Russell Shakespeare.

Mr Di Marco will be replaced by Pat O’Sullivan, the chairman of Carsales.com.

“(Pat O’Sullivan) will also be a non executive director of quite a few other publicly-listed companies including Afterpay so he brings with him an enormous amount of ASX and executive experience,” he said.

“Pat’s extensive experience gives me the confidence he will do an outstanding job in leading the TechnologyOne Board to continue to create substantial wealth for our shareholders,” Di Marco said.

Mr Di Marco founded the TechnologyOne in 1987, setting up its first R&D centre in a Brisbane car park. His departure will be final mid-year.

“My plan is I’ll be handing over on June 30th just as we release our half year results,” he said.

During a round of questioning at the AGM, Mr O’Sullivan was asked how he would handle his new role as chairman while serving on the board of other companies.

Mr O’Sullivan said while he had “big shoes to fill”, investors need not worry.

“In terms of workload, you’ve got nothing to worry about on my full commitment to this board as I did other boards.”

Mr Di Marco’s departure from the company arrives as he and TechnologyOne are still facing an ongoing legal battle with former Victorian state manager Behnam Roohizadegan.

The company had a win in the High Court in December, with the court dismissing their former employee’s appeal of a prior Federal Court decision, and the case is now proceeding to a retrial.

TechnologyOne had been ordered to pay $5.2m in damages in October 2020 when it lost an unfair dismissal case against Mr Roohizadegan, who had accused the company’s senior executives of bullying.

On August 5, that decision was set aside by the Full Federal Court, and a retrial ordered. Mr Roohizadegan then sought special leave to appeal to the High Court, which was dismissed in December.

“We note that in an attempt to grab headlines, some parties have continued to refer to outrageous statements contained in the original judgment, knowing that this judgment has been comprehensively overturned by the Full Federal Court,” Mr Di Marco said at the time.

“As has been previously reported in the press, this was a senior executive earning close to $1m per year, who no longer had the confidence of the board and his fellow executives and against whom serious allegations, including bullying behaviour, had been raised by staff. He could not work constructively with many of his peers and his executives, and we took action to address this in 2016.

“TechnologyOne acted ethically, appropriately and within the law in the actions we took. We look forward to expediting this matter to an end, as soon as possible.”

Originally published as Adrian Di Marco quits TechnologyOne, plans retirement