Tarsus CEO Douglas Emslie has marked his final day at Tarsus, the trade show company he built over 25 years and sold for almost $1bn.
Informa has completed the acquisition of Tarsus, from Charterhouse Capital Partners for a price of $940m (£755m) in a combination of cash and shares.
Emslie said: “Yesterday was my last day as CEO of Tarsus Group, it’s been a frantic period recently; at the end of January we were approached by Informa to buy the business and we subsequently announced the sale on 9 March. Strangely the following day, was my 25th anniversary of joining Tarsus yesterday (17 April) marks the completion of the acquisition and Tarsus is now owned by Informa.
“It’s the end of an era, yesterday was a very emotional day as I stepped down as CEO of Tarsus and become an advisor to Informa. It has been both an honour and a privilege to have led the business for the last 25 years, we’ve accomplished a lot over that time.
“I would like to finish up by saying thank you to all Tarsus employees and also to past employees and partners, who have helped to build the business over the last 25 years into a world-class business. Yesterday was an emotional day and as I stand back and reflect on everything it’s with nothing but gratitude.
“Today I start a new chapter as an advisor to Informa and as a full time runner. My first day at the office will be on Sunday for the London Marathon and next month I will be announcing the big running adventure for the summer. Watch this space.”
The so-called ‘mega deal’ will see the world’s largest trade show company add 160 well-respected competitor events to its portfolio.
Emslie previously told EN that having shares in the combined business was important to see post-pandemic recovery in Tarsus’ business as well as the wider recovery of the exhibitions industry.
Emslie is known affectionately as the “hardest-working man” in the exhibitions industry, running ultra-marathons in between leading a global business, running trade shows across 19 countries, in 20 different sectors.
See Emslie talking about the acquisition and the future for the business in our exclusive interview here:
