Techfront Australia appoints Nick Ebbeck as new chief executive

Mr Ebbeck, who has been the company’s chief operating officer, will replace Neil Maxwell as the boss of the media company.. (Photo by Danielle Butters) photo with Jenna Bloom

Techfront Australia has appointed Nick Ebbeck as its new chief executive.

Mr Ebbeck, who has been the company’s chief operating officer, will replace Neil Maxwell as the boss of the media company.

He had earlier worked as a director of Harvey Norman Business & Education and was a commercial sales director of JB Hi-Fi for Australia and New Zealand after working as head of commercial sales for Dick Smith across the same region.

It comes after the interests of Techfront Australia, which includes its outdoor advertising LED screen provider Screencorp, have emerged from administration following a Deed of Company Arrangement.

Ryan Eagle and Gayle Dickerson of KPMG were earlier appointed administrators to Screencorp, Techfront Australia and Techfront Infrastructure Solutions.

The company makes large screens for billboard operators in the Australian market such as oOh!media and JCDecaux and also works with the AFL, NRL and Lendlease.

It is understood its backers include private equity funds such as Kolberg Kravis Roberts and Blackstone.

Screencorp’s directors were earlier listed as Neil Maxwell of NSW and Muralidharan Srinivasan of India.

The company formed a strategic alliance with outdoor advertiser QMS in 2018.

QMS is now owned by Quadrant Private Equity, which launched a takeover bid for the business last year for $571.6m, including debt.

Techfront Australia continues to hold service-level contracts with QMS.

The challenge for all media companies during COVID-19 has been subdued income because advertisers are not spending.