Informa Names Charles McCurdy Chief Executive; Reports 2015 First-half Revenue Increase of 8.6 Percent

July 29, 2015

U.K.-based Informa released its 2015 first-half revenue results today, and at the same time, announced Charles McCurdy would be brought on as the chief executive for the company’s Global Exhibitions division, replacing Will Morris, who is retiring at the end of the year.

"I'm really excited about joining Informa's Global Exhibitions business," McCurdy said. "It has a deeply talented organization and powerful shows that are performing well. I'm looking forward to joining the team!"

McCurdy most recently was CEO of George Little Management, and prior to this, he was CEO of Canon Communications.

In addition, he previously served as chairman of the Board of American Business Media and Summit Professional Networks and as a director of Cygnus Business Media and GlobalSpec. From 1989 to 2003, he was president of Primedia.

He also currently is chairman of the Society of Independent Show Organizers. 

Overall, Informa revenues rose 8.6 percent to £618.8 million ($965.3 million) driven by strong growth in the global exhibitions division, which brought in £168.8 million ($263 million) – a 38 percent increase - compared with £122.3 million ($190.8 million) in the first half of last year.

This year was the first one since Informa bought Hanley Wood Exhibitions in November 2014 for $375 million.

The deal added 17 construction and real estate events to Informa's portfolio, including World of Concrete and the International Roofing Expo.

This year, Informa added even more events in its US portfolio: Real Estate & Construction - Dwell, Pop Culture - Orlando Megacon and the US Beauty & Aesthetics Exhibition.

Several other events performed well in the first half of 2015 - Arab Health, Middle East Electricity, World of Concrete and China Beauty Expo.

Allowing for the absence of the quadrennial event IPEX and the planned movement of some exhibitions into the second half of 2015, including Cityscape Egypt and Seragrafia, the organic revenue growth was 6.4 percent.

As far as the future, Informa officials said: “Our decision to further internationalize and expand the business, with particular focus on building our presence in North America, where scale underpins industry-leading margins, is reaping rewards with both of the larger U.S. acquisitions made in 2014 performing at or ahead of plan. We continue to look for attractive opportunities, with a number of smaller additions already completed in 2015.”

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