The Argility Technology Group (ATG) – this year celebrating 45 years of operations and latterly owned by Smollan, has a new CEO. Tanya Long takes over the role from Marko Salic, who now moves to the position of Chief Data Officer (CDO) for the Smollan Data & Technology cluster and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for ATG. Both appointments are with immediate effect.

Long, previously COO of ATG, is immensely experienced in the technology sector, where she commenced her career in 1988 supporting point-of-sale solutions. She moved formally into software development with UCS/Argility in 1989 as a developer, and progressed through to team leader – account management, project plus development management roles, which led her into various industries and corporations. She boasts three decades of experience at ATG, having begun as a Ceres developer. Her progression in the company saw her move into various roles and across many different clients. In the past seven years, she has served as COO and HR executive working alongside Salic to build and execute ATG’s vision for the group. “Tanya’s deep knowledge and care for the people, products, customers and processes, plus her passion to ensure ATG is filled with a skilled, engaged team of the best technical experts, has been instrumental in creating the organisation that ATG is today,” says James Collett, Smollan Chief Executive: Data & Technology.

As CEO, she will assume responsibility for all teams other than Data Science. Salic will continue to support Long during a transition period and will obviously remain available to the ATG teams from a CTO, leadership and advice perspective.

In moving to the position of Chief Data Officer (CDO) for the Smollan Data & Technology cluster and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for ATG, Salic will retain his current Data Science portfolio and will continue to lead the relevant teams. “Marko will also continue to drive and evolve the Google partnership and will also assume responsibility for the senior data engineers within the DataOrbis South Africa team. Marko’s primary focus will be to serve as Smollan Data & Technology CDO and to lead the development of our data/AI strategy, thereby evolving our data science and advanced analytics offerings across the cluster,” says Collett.

He further confirms that in moving to the position of CDO/CTO, Salic returns to his first love – technology. “He is an innovator, a passionate technologist as well as a respected leader with a strong followership. Marko has led ATG into a new era. His leadership augmented by his technical expertise, has been at the forefront of the evolution of Argility into a group of five software businesses focusing on software and data analytics solutions for retailers and brands. More recently, Marko has driven the integration of ATG into the Smollan Tech and Data cluster, matching ATG’s technical expertise with the Smollan retail and data powerhouse to create a new phase for all involved in the disruption of the retail landscape.”

Collett notes these appointments bode well for exciting times to come where ATG will continue to push boundaries and be the company of choice for retailers and brands in software solutions.

Source: IT Web | CIO-SA | Intelligent CIO