Verdane, a Northern European specialist growth investor, has appointed Giles Whiting as US Operating Adviser.
Whiting’s new part-time role will run in parallel to his full-time position as COO at Confirmit, a Verdane-owned customer experience platform. At Verdane, he will assist and advise portfolio companies on US market entry, recruitment, and market-specific business development efforts. Whiting will further assist Verdane in conjunction with M&A and other investment-related activities in the US, and assume board roles in a number of Verdane portfolio companies.
“With over 20 holdings operating in the US, we are pleased to welcome Giles onboard to further accelerate our portfolio’s growth. He has a long and distinguished track record of building high-performing teams, executing growth strategies, and supporting product development in technology-enabled businesses, with results that speak for themselves. Together with our investment team and our in-house operational expert teams, Giles will help us deliver on our promise to be the best growth partner for tech-enabled Northern European companies,” says Pål Malmros, Partner and Head of Software at Verdane.
Whiting’s merits include heading Softbank Group’s Operating Team, where he focused on investing in and growing a USD 64 billion global portfolio of 30-plus companies with a pronounced weighting toward technology and SaaS. Prior to Softbank, he spent many years working with various technology companies, most notably the customer experience platform Medallia, as the General Manager of their US operations and later the EMEA region. Under his leadership the region became the highest performing part of the business where he oversaw program implementation, managed services, technical support, partner success, as well as strategy and business operations.
“We’re experiencing the emergence of the ‘next normal’, where businesses that digitalise everyday life and work are seeing strong growth. It’s an incredibly exciting time to join Verdane, that for the last 5 years has been by far the most active financial buyer of software growth companies in its home region. I look forward to helping the team deliver exceptional growth in the US for our software vertical,” comments Giles Whiting, US Operating Advisor to Verdane and COO at Verdane-owned Confirmit.
A Harvard and US Air Force Academy graduate, Whiting spent seven years in the US Air Force as a physicist leading USD1 billion-plus scientific projects. Following his service, Whiting kick-started his professional career as a consultant with McKinsey & Company.
