Ken Maud, the chairman of Peek Holdings Plc and a key director responsible for the group’s current strategic position, resigned on Thursday, saying he could no longer work at the firm because of continuing disagreements over the company’s future strategy. Peek, which is based in Milton Keynes, is a leading supplier of traffic management systems for the UK and US markets as well as making robust field data systems such as the Husky range of personal computers. David Walsh, a member of the non-executive board, has been appointed in his place with immediate effect. The decision to resign was made at a board meeting on Thursday morning, after which Maud flew home to the US. He is currently on a two year rolling service contract with a remuneration package of around 200,000 pounds, about $320,000 per annum, but the company has no intention of asking him to serve out a notice period. The former chairman also owns around 3 million shares in Peek, giving him a 2.63% stake which he currently has no intention to sell. The disagreements between Mr Maud and the rest of the board centered on his desire to take the company more aggressively into new and emerging markets. It appears that a more conservative approach was favored by the majority of directors who view the recent ventures into Asia as being highly problematic. The argument has been running for some time and Maud finally felt that his position was untenable. The company is unaware of any plans he might have at this stage, but his contract of employment contains a restrictive covenant preventing him from working for any competing firm for at least two years. Maud also has interests in San Diego based GTI Corp the loss making group which is majority owned by UK based Telemetrix Plc.
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