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Livebookings Appoints CEO and CFO Tech ‘Power Team’ to Drive Rapid Growth

30 November 2010

Livebookings Appoints CEO and CFO Tech ‘Power Team’ to Drive Rapid Growth

Colin Tenwick, CEO, and Ian Cole, CFO join Livebookings to accelerate growth and cement Livebookings’ position as the global leader in online reservations and marketing services for restaurants.

NEW YORK, NY - Livebookings, the leading global online reservations and marketing service for restaurants, has announced the appointment of Colin Tenwick as CEO and Ian Cole as CFO. Working together since 2001 the two have formed a unique partnership that has seen them successfully scale their previous companies internationally and steer them towards sale. Most recently the leadership team turned StepStone ASA, the total talent management solutions provider, into a global leader.

This tech power team has joined Livebookings to oversee its continuing rapid growth, with the aim of cementing the company’s position as global market leader and eventually bringing it to public markets in an IPO. They will also drive expansion and partnerships into new territories including the US, where a campaign is already underway.

“The reservations and marketing operations of restaurants clearly have the potential to be transformed by the application of cloud computing technology,” said Colin Tenwick. “I can see many parallels with other digital markets such as recruitment at the beginning of the decade – highly-dispersed players, massive data volumes and a clear opportunity for traditional brands to grow through a digital presence.”

“The Livebookings team has built the market leader in Europe for restaurant reservations and marketing services,” added Colin. “ We intend to accelerate growth and to continue to establish Livebookings as the worldwide leader in this space.”

 “Colin and Ian demonstrated with StepStone that they have the vision and drive to build a world-leading software solutions business,” said Tim Bunting, Chairman of the Board. “Bringing Livebookings’ unique platform of services for restaurants and its unmatched network of consumer brands to an even larger global market of independent and group restaurants is a challenge that they are ready for.”

Niklas Eklund, Co-Founder, who has retired from the role of CEO, but remains on the board as a Non-Executive Director, said, “We have brought in a proven team with experience of both scaling a fast growing software-as-a-service company and bringing it to the public markets in an IPO.”

Since its foundation in 2001, Livebookings has pioneered the online restaurant reservations market. Today over 8,000 restaurants across 23 countries have signed up to the service and every three seconds a consumer makes a reservation using the Livebookings system. Livebookings has received over $22m in venture capital investment over the past two years from Balderton Capital and Wellington Partners.

Colin Tenwick and Ian Cole built up StepStone from a small dotcom company into a global Total Talent Management leader, building its revenues from €17m to over €120m before selling the business to Axel Springer in October 2009. Prior to StepStone, Colin ran the European operations of several leading technology companies including RedHat and Sybase. Colin was named UK CEO of the Year at the 2008 UK Innovation and Growth Awards. Ian Cole worked as CFO with Colin at RedHat as well as StepStone. He started his career at Coopers & Lybrand.

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About Livebookings

Livebookings is an award-winning company built for restaurateurs by restaurateurs. Headquartered in London, with offices in Hamburg, Stockholm, Madrid and New York and customers in 23 countries, we are the leading global online marketing and reservations service for restaurants.

Livebookings enables real-time, online reservations on restaurant websites 24 hours a day and helps restaurants to access customers that would otherwise be difficult to reach through a global network of partners including Bookatable, American Express, lastminute.com, and Ticketmaster. Livebookings also provides a time efficient reservation system for restaurateurs to manage their bookings and the tools for effective online marketing.

In 2010, Livebookings will deliver over 7 million diners to restaurants worldwide including Bonefish Grill, B.R. Guest Restaurants, Aquavit, and Spice Market. Livebookings is owned by Livebookings Holdings Ltd. For more information, visit http://livebookings.com, follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/livebookingsUSA, or visit our restaurant marketing blog.

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Jennifer Raezer
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