Inside this section
Stephen Sampson
Limited Partner - ICT
acquisitions - Melbourne
Stephen has been in the
business of building IT & T businesses for more than 30 years and can be
described as a serial entrepreneur. 3 years after he started working with a
major IT Consulting firm he acquired the IT training/consultancy division which
was based in Victoria. He took this opportunity national and also developed a
complementary implementation consultancy business. He sold this business to a
private investment group so that he could focus all of his energies on the
development of a new software product that provided security and access control
for Windows.
This access control product
was implemented by banks, government departments, large corporates and
telecommunications companies in Australia and Europe to secure and manage their
systems. Stephen organised the sale/acquisition of the business by the
company’s European distribution partner when his business partner was diagnosed
with an acquired brain injury. He was appointed to run international operations
for the European distributor and did so for the next three years based in
Washington DC. During this period he assisted with their IPO on the Norwegian
stock exchange.
Stephen then invested, with
two other partners, in a Victorian IT hardware and software distribution
company. Over a three year period this business grew from $28 to $125 million
per annum, and became the largest Toshiba distributor in Australia operating as
a public company. This massive growth was achieved by acquiring/merging the
Victorian operation with businesses in New South Wales, Queensland and Western
Australia and successfully integrating the sales and operations of these
companies.
Since then Stephen has helped
bring two new telecommunications products to market, one that is targeted at the
banking industry providing secure wireless transactions and another that targets
the global wireless voice and data gateway device market.
This depth and breadth of
experience building, acquiring and merging companies to create successful
outcomes clearly demonstrates Stephen’s high level of persistence, attention to
detail, commercial acumen, team building and vision in the IT & T market both in
Australia and overseas.
