The boss of one of Norfolk's premier technology companies has left the firm with immediate effect.

John Kennedy has resigned from Norwich-based Proxama and been replaced as chief executive by Mark Slade, who joined the location data and marketing company earlier this year.

Mr Kennedy had been with the business since 2014 and had been in the top job since July 2015.

READ MORE: Proxama cuts losses after restructure

Proxama, which currently has a market cap of £3.99m, has gone through a period of change after a failed plan to sell its digital payments division earlier this year led to a restructure.

The Aim-listed company raised £3.1m from a share placing as it cleared its debts and transitioned its business strategy to become a location data provider – launching a Location Sciences arm.

This new business, which was led by Mr Slade initially, provides advertisers with insight into how many people are seeing their adverts.

Proxama chairman Kelvin Harrison said: 'John has led the company through a period of significant change.

'The company has been de-leveraged, refinanced and has transformed its strategy.

'It is therefore now able to build on its network of assets and partnerships to focus on the mobile location intelligence market, with a new executive team.

'Mark is already proving to be a fantastic addition to the board, and will bring tremendous energy to the role of chief executive.

'Mark joined us from Opera Mediaworks, where he was managing director Europe Middle East and Africa, and has numerous senior relationships across the ad tech and media giants.

'Mark founded and sold his mobile advertising business Fourth Screen to Opera Mediaworks, and then helped grow the business to over $100m in revenues.

'Mark's expertise is in the high growth ad tech sector, as well as executing European acquisitions.'

Mr Slade said: 'I am delighted to be taking the lead as the company launches into the location intelligence market with a range of products that have huge demand from marketing agencies and brands as well as other sectors.

'I would also like to acknowledge John Kennedy's hard work in leading the transformation of the business.'

Proxama's share price rose in the immediate aftermath of the news, moving up 9.3% to 0.032 pence per share.