Michael Blomfield to depart Iress

Iress' commerce chief Michael Blomfield is departing the financial software company for health reasons and will be replaced by Simon New.

Before Blomfield's appointment last year, he was chief executive of Investment Trends - a privately owned financial services industry research house and was also Asia Pacific managing director for MF Global.

Previously, he spent ten years with Commonwealth Bank most recently running equities and the lender's SME banking business.

For seven years beginning in 2010, Blomfield was a member of the supervisory committee that governed CBA's bank's in China's Henan and Hebei provinces. Currently, Blomfield sits on the board of QiLu Bank in Shandong Province.

"My time at Iress has been one of the highlights of my career. I am disappointed to have to step away at this time from a great company with a clear strategy and the team to deliver it. I am confident I will regain my health, but for now, my decision to resign is the right one for me and my family," he said.

Iress chief executive, Andrew Walsh, said: "In his time at Iress, Michael has played an important role in improving our strategic relationships and sales capability in line with our strategy, which has ultimately driven better outcomes for our clients.

Speaking of New - who joined Iress in 2015 as head of strategy before running client solutions in 2019 -  said he had extensive experience in the commercial aspects of financial services and deep knowledge of Iress and its clients.

"While it is always sad to lose high-quality colleagues who have contributed to the success of Iress, I am extremely confident in the strength and depth of our team and our succession pipeline. As a business, we remain focused on executing our strategy and we continue to make good progress towards our 2025 targets."

Before his appointment, New held senior roles at EY and Lloyds.

Iress said a search for a new client solutions head is underway.