In a message addressed to Australia-based Isentia (ASX:ISD) across its multiple Asian offices earlier this week, CEO Ed Harrison announced the departure of the company’s Chief Insights Officer and Chief Commercial Officer, respectively.
Sean Smith, Isentia’s CCO, and Khali Sakkas, the CIO, “have decided that it’s time for new career challenges and will be leaving Isentia,” said Harrison in an email circulated by the company. Smith worked at Isentia for 18 years, and Sakkas was employed for 16 years by the Sydney-based social media monitoring and online news data monitoring business.
Smith is reportedly leaving to helm a large Australian marketing and communications company, and Sakkas will be moving into consulting. Harrison stressed “the concurrent timing of their departures is coincidental”, which appears to mean they quit their positions rather than were pushed out.
Isentia currently operates in more than 8 countries across Asia. The business saw the departure earlier this year of its Asia CEO David Liu and its chief operations and data director, Danny Levinson.
In the United States yesterday, Isentia’s global rival Cision announced it was privatizing after it entered into an agreement to be acquired by an affiliate of investment firm Platinum Equity.