Steve Young has been recruited as Head of Business Development, and Neil Craddock has been appointed as Chief Operating Officer of Europe. These appointments follow the announcement of senior hires in the US earlier this month as Citisoft readies itself for growth at the start of its new financial year.

Steve Young is a senior industry executive with 30 years experience across a wide ranging spectrum of the investment management sector. He was one of the four man team that created Rhyme Systems following a management buy-out from Misys PLC in 2003. Steve subsequently had operational responsibility for the asset management division and successfully restructured the business into a leading software and services company. Prior to Misys and Rhyme, Steve held senior positions at Thomson Reuters, Extel Financial and Datastream. Steve joins Citisoft from Ascension Consulting.

Steve brings with him a unique blend of business understanding combined with an extensive knowledge of the technology and software landscape serving the investment industry, along with an in depth understanding of the services sector, all of which combines to make him ideally suited to help develop Citisoft's business. In his new role, Steve will be responsible for developing new and existing business relationships, and ensuring Citisoft stays at the forefront of the market for delivering premier quality consulting services to the investment management community.

Immediately prior to being appointed as COO, Neil Craddock was a Principal Consultant and head of Citisoft's Wealth Management Practice. Since joining Citisoft in 2000 Neil has managed several large programmes, helping drive many Citisoft clients through transformational and global change. More recently, Neil has successfully built out the Wealth Management Practice and has also taken on responsibility for managing several strategic client relationships. In his capacity as Chief Operating Officer for Europe, Neil wiill be responsible for ensuring the quality of our service delivery to clients as well as overseeing internal operational and administrative functions. Neil will continue as head of Citisoft's Wealth Management Practice, and will retain his existing client management responsibilities.

"We are thrilled to be able to bolster the European management team with two such strong candidates", comments Jonathan Clark, Group CEO of the global consulting company. "Neil, having been with Citisoft for over ten of his 25 years in the industry, was an obvious candidate to move into this new role as we extend and enhance the services we provide to clients whilst streamlining our own business operations. We're very fortunate to be able to coincide this with Steve's joining. Steve brings with him a wealth of entrepreneurial experience, and I have no doubt he will make an instant contribution to our growing business".

These appointments are part of Citisoft's strategy to expand its advisory and delivery capabilities across the whole range of client needs. Citisoft's clients today are looking to gain competitive advantage whilst improving operational efficiency, and are increasingly relying on experts who have a thorough understanding of the business, operations and technology. Throughout its 25 year history Citisoft has excelled in recruiting and developing consultants with such expertise, and these appointments will further consolidate Citisoft's leadership in this area.

Neil and Steve will both be based out of Citisoft's London offices and will report to Jonathan Clark, Citisoft's Group Chief Executive.