Breaking News: Estelle McGechie ousted as Atomos CEO

In a shock announcement to the Australian stock market last night, Atomos stated that Estelle McGechie is no longer CEO of the company.

We hope to have more on this later, but overnight it has emerged that Estelle McGechie’s tenure as CEO of Atomos is over. In a statement to the ASX, the company said that McGechie’s stint has “concluded, primarily because she has not yet relocated to Australia.”

It goes on to say that “The Company has always indicated that it requires the CEO to be based in its Melbourne headquarters.”

An interim CEO, Trevor Elbourne, who has spent the last six years as Atomos’ Chief Technology Officer, has been appointed with immediate effect.

Elbourne is one of Atomos’ founding employees, having joined in 2012 to lead product design. Since then, he has played a vital role in determining Atomos’ technology strategy and product roadmap. In 2017 Trevor was appointed CTO and oversaw the successful development of Atomos’ flagship Ninja V and Shinobi products.

Commenting on the change in CEO, Chris Tait, Non-Executive Chair said: “I would like to thank Estelle for her efforts at Atomos and on behalf of the Board wish her the best in her future endeavours. Trevor is a logical and highly capable appointment as interim CEO given his intimate knowledge of the products and technology that have made Atomos one of the global leaders in video technology today. As the Company embarks on an exciting expansion of our product line-up, the Board is confident Trevor will bring his deep experience in technology innovation to ensure our products continue to meet the changing needs of our growing customer base.”

Trevor Elbourne, interim CEO, said: “I’m excited to lead Atomos as we take the important next step along our technology roadmap by launching a suite of new products in late April that will improve video production workflows for our customers. It’s a great time to be a content creator and we look forward to continuing to empower our highly creative customers with a raft of new products that seamlessly connect to the cloud. We look forward to sharing more details at the National Association of Broadcasters Trade Show.”

Make of all this what you will. McGechie was a popular figure in the industry and one of the few female CEOs in a sea of middle aged men. But the ASX was initially not overly impressed at least, with Atomos shares down 19% at time of writing.