Mike Smith
Chief Executive
Appointed in June 2002, 14 months after the creation of Oxygen (then a newly formed Carter Holt Harvey “Ideas to Business” subsidiary), Mike has led the growth of the Oxygen brand and operations within New Zealand, established a successful and growing Australian operation, led the sale of the business to UXC in 2006, and in April 2011 enjoyed celebrating 10 years of success and growth in the Australasian region.
“From a single client in 2002, our goals were twofold, to create an attractive culture and work context for our current and planned staff as a number one priority and concurrently create a leading services proposition that could extend regionally across chosen industry sectors.
We quickly sought to establish an Australian base as part of our growth ambitions and in 2004 opened our first office in Sydney. We have had considerable success as a New Zealand business entering Australia and today our Australian operations contribute over 60% to Oxygen Group revenues.”
On behalf of Carter Holt Harvey (itself acquired by Rank Group at that time) Mike led the sales process in 2005/2006 resulting in Carter Holt Harvey divesting the Oxygen business and Melbourne based IT specialist company UXC Limited acquiring the A/NZ operations, staff, brand, management team and client base. Under UXC, Oxygen has enjoyed strong organic growth since 2006 and also the 2009 addition by acquisition of specialist Melbourne based SME software sales and services company Intacct Limited (now OxygenExpress).
“I am privileged to lead a very talented team operating inside a very exciting marketplace and eco-system. I was originally inspired with the potential to turn a single client services business into a leading services business in the A/NZ region. We have deliberately focussed early on attracting the most talented business and IT professionals in the industry and grounding them into a culture that is vibrant, open, empowering and values based. These two components are our greatest differentiator”.
“We have had some great success with our clients and a key proof point is our 12 SAP A/NZ Customer Awards over 10 years, including two in 2011 – the only A/NZ SAP Partner to do so."
In April 2011 Oxygen celebrated its 10 year anniversary as one of the most successful SAP Business Partner companies in Australasia, and has delivered over AUD$600m (NZ$750m) of SAP projects during that time.
“My goal is to create the environment, energy and culture for even greater moments in the future”.
Mr Smith is a former Chief Executive at Cardinal Group (now Jade Software Corporation Limited). Prior to that he held sales, management and M&A positions at IBM New Zealand.
He has in-depth experience in start-ups, building and managing sales-oriented services companies and development of sustainable cultures
Oxygen at a Glance
Date Founded:
2001
What We Do:
Leading provider of SAP and related solutions across Australia and New Zealand
View our Solutions
Locations:
Auckland; Brisbane; Canberra; Melbourne; Sydney; Wellington
Contact us
On Twitter:
www.twitter.com/oxygensap
Employees:
220+ of which more than 150 are consultants and technology specialists
Clients:
Partners with over 50 customers across multiple industries
View our Success Stories
Parent Company:
Read about UXC
