Sam Mudd has taken over as CEO of Bytes Technology after the ousting of former long-time boss Neil Murphy earlier in the year due to a share trading scandal.
On Friday, the group’s board said Mudd had been appointed with immediate effect, “following a selection process led by chair, Patrick De Smedt, with support from a leading external search firm”.
Mudd has more than 20 years’ experience in leadership positions, has served as an executive director since July 2023 and was the interim CEO of the company from February.
For the past 10 years, Mudd was MD of Phoenix Software, a business acquired by Bytes in 2017, where “she has overseen an extended period of strong organic growth, which has contributed materially to Bytes’ success”, said the group. She joined Phoenix in November 2003, having previously held senior roles at WordPerfect, Novell and Trustmarque Solutions.
Bytes is listed in Johannesburg and London.
Mudd’s ascension comes after the initial Murphy scandal broke, while details of more unauthorised transactions involving his wife have since emerged.
In February the UK firm, which was spun out of Altron in 2020, said Murphy had notified the board that he had made a number of trades in the company’s shares that had not been disclosed to either it or the market as required by listing rules.
CEOs, CFOs, directors and senior managers who have access to inside information about a publicly traded company are required to declare when they make trades in their own shares. The rules are in place to prevent insider trading and ensure market transparency.
Since then, the company has launched an urgent investigation into the matter. It found that Murphy had engaged in unauthorised and undisclosed trading of Bytes shares on 66 trading days between January 2021 and November 2023, totalling 119 transactions. The company was caught unaware by the revelations. It had conducted an unrelated share-dealing disclosure investigation in 2023, in which Murphy’s transgressions went undetected.
In addition to Mudd officially taking the CEO’s office, Bytes said Ross Paterson had been appointed as an independent non-executive director and chair of its audit committee, with effect from June.
Paterson spent more than 23 years at Stagecoach in senior executive finance positions, including 10 years as CFO.
The company has also appointed Anna Vikström Persson as an independent non-executive director, also with effect from June. Persson will join the group’s audit, nomination and remuneration committees.
Vikström Persson was previously chief human resources (HR) officer for Pearson and executive vice-president, head of HR at Sandvik and SSAB.
In addition to the appointments, the company announced the formation of an environmental, social, and governance (ESG) committee, with effect from June, to monitor the execution of Bytes’ “ESG and sustainability strategy and to provide input to the board and board committees on these matters”.
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