Committee Member
Phill Robinson
Founder - Boardwave,
Software CEO, Chair, NED, Advisor & Dvpt Board Member, Cure Parkinson’s
Phill is one of the most accomplished Chairpeople, CEOs and Non-Executive Board Members, in the European software industry.
Phill founded Boardwave with a strong belief that all the knowledge and experience exists in Europe to build many more world-leading software businesses, that compete on a global scale. But that knowledge is often fragmented by geography, growth stage, sub sector focus and investor portfolio.
Boardwave was created to connect the leading software CEOs, Chairs, Non-Execs, Founders and Investors in Europe. To enable them to share knowledge and best-practice, to network and to mentor one another. The goal is simple - to create strong connections that accelerate success in European software.
Phill recently retired from full time employment, as CEO of Exact, a large multi-national software business, headquartered in The Netherlands.
Under his leadership the company restructured in 2017, and with its revised strategy ignited double digit growth across the business, and 20%+ in its cloud products, whilst improving margins. Phill lead the sale of the business, from APAX Partners to KKR in 2019, with a 4x money multiple for the selling investors & management. He remains a Non-Executive Director of their Supervisory Board and Chairman of the Remuneration Committee.
Phill is also Chairman of the Livingbridge Software Advisory Board. He is an advisor to KKR, and a number of other Private Equity firms.
Prior to Exact, Phill was CEO of IRIS Software, the UKs leading Accountancy Software provider, which he joined in 2009. Having lead the sale from Hellman Friedman to Hg Capital in 2011, the business continued to successfully grow revenue from £30m to £150m, with market leading EBITDA margins, during his tenure. Through a planned succession process Phill became Chairman of the business after 6 years at the helm. A post he held for a further 12 months, until moving to Exact.
Phill spent his earlier career as part of the founding EMEA Executive teams of both Siebel Systems and Salesforce.com. Whilst at Salesforce.com he moved to Silicon Valley to take up the position of Chief Marketing Officer, for three years, including during its IPO, before eventually returning to the UK.
Phill joined Oracle Corporation as a late 1980s graduate, where he was a developer of Oracle Manufacturing, living in California. He continued his career in Database software, after four years with Oracle, when he joined Sybase. During his time at Sybase Phill lead European Product Management.
Phill has a BSc in Computer Science, from Coventry University.
In 2017, Phill was diagnosed with Young Onset Parkinson's Disease. Phill is passionately focussed on changing the image of the disease, so that people can openly discuss their condition with friends or colleagues without the fear of prejudice or discrimination.
Phill was appointed the first Chair of the Development Board at Cure Parkinson’s, in May 2021. The goal of the Development Board is to raise the profile of Cure Parkinson’s and the money needed to enable the world's leading Neuroscientists to rapidly accelerate research into new treatments, with the potential to slow, stop or reverse Parkinson's Disease.
Phill lives with his wife and family in Hampshire, United Kingdom.
#stirrednotshaking.
www.stirrednotshaking.com
