Chris McLaughlin (Atturra)
Two months after acquiring Cirrus Networks, Atturra has appointed its former CEO and managing director Chris McLaughlin as executive general manager.
As part of his new role with Atturra, Melbourne-based McLaughlin will lead the company’s managed services business lines.
According to the publicly listed company, the managed services arm has a national team of 200 staff, brought together through the acquisitions of Sabervox Solutions, Somerville IT, Techtonics Group and Cirrus Networks.
“This merges $90 million of acquisitions made in 2023 to create a truly national, sovereign, ICT business delivering product solutions, professional services and managed services,” McLaughlin told ARN.
“The focus for the coming months is to integrate these businesses as one team across the country while ensuring we continue to deliver a fantastic service to our customers and contribute to the larger Atturra business. I have a truly excellent team to help do this.”
First announced in September, the $58.6-million deal to acquire Perth-based Cirrus saw Atturra gain access to the former’s "wealth of expertise in the government and energy and resources industries” alongside its entire team.
Atturra CEO Stephen Kowal has long spoken of his desire to create an Australia-wide managed services powerhouse.
Speaking at the time of Somervile’s acquisition, he said: “Atturra Managed Services is an extremely strategic part of our business that will open up new avenues for innovation and growth and reinforce services delivery to boost growth in supporting large end-to-end projects in key target sectors, including education.”
Of Cirrus’ acquisition, Kowal added that the MSP will “expand Atturra’s recurring managed service capabilities and will provide an enlarged and complementary client base with significant future cross-sell opportunities”.
