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Entrepreneur in Residence
London
Richard Smith began as an Executive in Residence at Battery, working alongside the investment team on a project to build a global platform company in target sectors of the rapidly consolidating, traditional enterprise software industry. He is currently the CEO of Vero, following the firm’s take-private of the company. Richard has more than 20 years as a sales and marketing-oriented business leader in the software and technology markets.
Prior to Vero, Richard was CEO of IBS OPENSystems plc. During his tenure, the business delivered record revenues and profits, and was ultimately positioned for a sale. He recommended and led an auction process which resulted in a deal with Capita Plc for a total cash consideration of approximately 60% premium to the prevailing share price. Before IBS OPENSystems, Richard was Group Sales Director of iSOFT and a member of the Executive Management Board. He led major improvements to the sales capability and performance across the international Group, which included the UK, most major Western European countries, ANZ and the Far East. The turnaround in the business performance eventually led to the successful acquisition by IBA Health.
Earlier in his career, Richard held progressively senior roles with Geac, the most recent of which as VP and General Manager, Global ERP Software Division, where he led the turnaround of a failing acquisition. He consistently exceeded business targets for 19 successive quarters, delivered 8x EBITDA growth, and 37% licence growth in a highly competitive market. Geac’s market cap increased from $70M to $1B during his tenure, and Richard was instrumental in the successful sale of the business to Golden Gate Private Equity.
Richard also spent a number of years with both Dun & Bradstreet and Raytheon. He holds an MA in Mathematics and Theoretical Physics from Cambridge University. |
