Atturra hires Herb To as chief financial officer

IT services company Atturra has hired seasoned executive Herb To as its new chief financial officer.

To, who was hired from TZ Limited, will replace current CFO Richard Shaw, who finishes up on 31 October. To will officially commence on 4 October 2022.

In an ASX announcement, Atturra highlighted To’s 25 years of professional experience in finance, operations, strategy, mergers and acquisitions, data & analytics, risk and governance from his past roles across Australia, North America and the South Pacific.

Commenting on To’s appointment, Atturra chief executive Stephen Kowal told CRN, “After the board met with a range of suitable candidates, they decided on Herb as he has a broad range of experiences and exposure to several sectors aligned to our operations and reporting requirements including prior experience in both technology and services.”

“He also has experience managing most of our relevant stakeholder group and is a great cultural fit.”

In the announcement, Atturra said Shaw decided to step down and finish up his fixed-term employment contract. Shaw joined Atturra in 2021 to help the company prepare for its initial public offering (IPO) at the time, as well as navigating Atturra during its initial period as a listed entity.

“Having listed in December 2021, Atturra has recently completed its first full-year reporting obligations and the company thanks Richard for his contribution in this period,” the announcement read.

Kowal told CRN, “When we recruited Richard the intention was always to have him help us achieve a successful IPO, guide us through our first few results, and put in place the processes we need to successfully transition to a public company. This is why he was on a fixed term contract.”

“I am proud to say that with Richard we had a very successful IPO and despite a tough post listing market have had a fantastic debut. We now have in place all the policies and procedures to stay that way.”

To was most recently CFO of software company TZ Limited, which he held from November 2021. Prior to that, he was CFO of Dentsu Media from 2020 to 2021 and FCO of WPP AUNZ’s data investment management group from 2016 to 2019. He also worked as CFO at market research firm Kantar and Papua New Guinea telco Digicel.

Other previous stints include manufacturer CR Bard, CSC Australia (now DXC Technology), Telstra, Optus and now defunct accounting firm Arthur Andersen.

Last month, Atturra scored an extension of its contract with The Royal Australian Air Force for the provision of analytics, decision support applications and management processes solutions. The company also appointed former AFCA enterprise and solutions architect Ganesh Nagasamy to be its new chief architect for the company's data and integration business.