US e-commerce entrepreneur, and founder and CEO of CommerceHub, Frank Poore has been appointed as a Non-executive Director of leading virtual reality technology company, ENGAGE XR Holdings plc .
Frank brings a wealth of entrepreneurial and business experience to ENGAGE XR with over 25 years as an e-commerce innovator and visionary. As founder and CEO of CommerceHub, Frank built an industry-leading company that enables $30 billion in recurring e-commerce sales for 15,000 of the world’s largest retailers, brands, distributors, and marketplaces.
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“I am excited to join the Board of VRE and to work with VR pioneers like David and Sandra. As companies embrace remote work, they will need new ways to manage their culture and team chemistry. ENGAGE is already well-positioned as the “office of the future”
Based in Europe, ENGAGE XR (which is changing its name from VR Education Holdings plc) is listed on the London Stock Exchange. ENGAGE XR is focused on becoming a leading global provider of virtual communications solutions through its proprietary software platform, ENGAGE. ENGAGE provides users with a platform for creating, sharing, and delivering VR content for communication, training, and online events. The Company has announced the development of a new fully featured corporate metaverse, codenamed “ENGAGE Oasis”, with the launch expected in the first half of 2022.
In the first six months of 2021, the Company’s revenue increased by 83% to €1.25 million as demand for VR as a communications tool, was accelerated by the pandemic. Since ENGAGE’s launch in 2019, the number of commercial customers has increased to over 130, as well as the Company making significant progress in the roll-out of ENGAGE in China through its partnership with HTC and entering the Middle East for the first time. ENGAGE customers include Abbott Laboratories, BMW Motorsport, Facebook, HTC, MongoDB, and the US State Department.
As well as serving on the Board, Frank will work with the management of ENGAGE XR to help expand the Company’s sales function to help achieve its goal of becoming a leading global provider of virtual communications and support the successful roll-out of ENGAGE Oasis.
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As CEO, Frank led CommerceHub through enormous periods of growth, resulting in major milestone events including international expansion, two significant acquisitions, and a successful public floatation on Nasdaq. CommerceHub’s platform and business model were also highly respected for generating industry-leading EBITDA returns. Frank created four successful liquidity events for CommerceHub shareholders – first through a sale of CommerceHub to QVC/Comcast Corporation in 2006, second via public offering in 2016 on Nasdaq, third through a $1 billion take-private sale of CommerceHub to GTCR and Sycamore Partners in 2018, and most recently through a majority sale to Insight Partners and Goldman Sachs for nearly $2 billion in December 2020.
David Whelan, CEO of ENGAGE XR, commented: “With over 25 years’ experience as a successful entrepreneur, building a company with a strong sales and technology focus, and a track record of delivering value for global multinational businesses, Frank is a major addition to our Board. His experience will be invaluable as we expand our ENGAGE metaverse offering particularly in North America working together to achieve our ambitious medium and long-term growth targets.”
Frank Poore said: “I am excited to join the Board of VRE and to work with VR pioneers like David and Sandra. As companies embrace remote work, they will need new ways to manage their culture and team chemistry. ENGAGE is already well-positioned as the “office of the future” by enabling distributed teams to come together into a virtual office, conference room, auditorium, classroom, or coffee shop to create a sense of presence and to foster collaboration, creativity, and serendipity. The development of ENGAGE Oasis is especially exciting and it can establish itself as the go-to virtual world where global organizations come to interact with each other, and their stakeholders. I believe that my background and personality will bring a disruptive yet collaborative spirit that can help unlock substantial value for shareholders.”
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