Meet Dave Richards – atmail’s new CEO

 

Powering 170 million mailboxes worldwide, atmail has come a long way since our launch in 1998, when Ben Duncan released one of the world’s very first commercial webmail platforms.

This year marks another significant milestone in atmail’s journey, as email industry veteran Dave Richards joins our team as CEO.

With the wisdom of 20+ years in the email and broader messaging sector, Dave brings both industry expertise and a razor-sharp focus for atmail to create the best customer experience possible.

We bought Dave a long black and quizzed him about who he is outside of work, as well as how he sees the evolution of “the new atmail”.

 

atmail: Welcome Dave! Can you tell us a little about the behind-the-scenes Dave?

Dave: Sure. I’m a techie at heart, having started my professional life as a programmer. Today, I love leading teams to help them perform exceptionally. And when I’m not working, I love travelling and trying not to be the worst triathlete in town.

 

atmail: How many countries have you travelled to and what is your favourite destination?

Dave: (Counting on his fingers for a few minutes…) I’d say I’ve travelled to around 40 countries to date.

My favourite destinations are Iceland and New Zealand. Iceland, because of it’s raw, awe-inspiring nature – with volcanoes right next to ice-capped glaciers. New Zealand, because it offers a relaxing escape if you enjoy sipping a few glasses of wine with incredible nature as your backdrop. NZ, because it reminds me of Europe, it’s only a few hours flight from Brisbane and the fact that it offers awesome skiing and bike riding, only adds to its appeal.

 

atmail: Is there a quote that motivates you, day to day?

Dave: Probably my own mantra: “Make sure you’re doing the right things every day.”

 

atmail: Switching our attention now to atmail… What are your observations so far?

Dave: From day one, atmail impressed me as a company of really nice, innovative people that are dedicated to solving really big problems for their customers. The team is full of passion and is thirsty for even greater success; I am hoping to harness their passion and their customer centric culture to drive success for our customers and in turn, our own company.

 

atmail: Why do you refer to “the new atmail” and what makes it an exciting time to be leading atmail?

Dave: Firstly, because it’s the first time in nearly 20 years that atmail’s founder, Ben Duncan, has stepped away from day to day operations. Ben is a legend in the industry and has been atmail’s source of inspiration for a long time, but by him stepping away, it has opened the door for the team to now develop it’s own identity and personality – which is an exciting opportunity to be a part of.

Secondly, historically, atmail tried to service everyone. Whereas in “the new atmail”, we’re getting more focussed on our ideal customers – and serving them exceptionally well – and having a great time doing it!

 

atmail: Why should someone choose atmail over another offering?

Dave: We’re email experts and our entire company is simply focussed on email. We’ve got a (nearly) 20-year track record of delivering a secure and reliable email service for our customers. We’re happy to let our customers’ brands shine with white labelling and we’re constantly innovating and evolving our product (for example, by offering cloud solutions and object storage).

 

atmail: In March this year, we launched our newest product, atmail suite. Do you plan for atmail to release any more products soon?

Dave: Absolutely – atmail has a great history of innovation and I definitely want that to continue. We launched the yourmail Cloud at World Hosting Day in Las Vegas this month. yourmail is a cloud based email service aimed specifically at small and medium sized businesses who require less than 1,000 mailboxes.

Also, this month we will be exiting our beta and officially launching object storage (a plugin to Dovecot open source). This will be great for service providers who are looking to lower their storage costs and footprint, as well as utilise either public or private (S3) cloud storage solutions.

Early-to-mid 2018, we’ll also reveal details about a new market segment that we’re pursuing, which promises amazing potential growth for atmail. Watch this space.

 

atmail: If someone reading this interview is deciding whether atmail is the right solution for them, what advice can you give?

Dave: If you care about your brand, then you’re in the right place with atmail. We specialise in affordable and customisable white label email solutions that showcase your brand, not our brand.

Or, if you’re an infrastructure (or hosting service) provider, you’re also in the right place if you’re looking for new and innovative opportunities for revenue generation as your traditional infrastructure business margins are squeezed.

 

atmail: Any final words of wisdom to share?

Dave: Know what you do. Do that. Do it well. And of course, if you need someone that does email well, talk to us at atmail.

 

atmail: Dave Richards, thank you so much for your time. And again, welcome to atmail!