Phill Robinson

He was born in Leicester, England and attended Rawlins Community College and comprehensive school, in Quorn. Robinson received a BSc in Computer Science from Coventry Polytechnic, now Coventry University, in 1988. After graduating he joined Oracle Corporation. A year later he moved to Silicon Valley.

Robinson has 35 years leadership experience in the software industry. He served in the management teams of a number of international software firms in both Europe and the US. With Oracle (1987 – 1990) he started as a graduate consultant and after a year moved to Redwood Shores, California to prepare and bring to market Oracle's first MRP software package, known as Oracle Manufacturing to the US. He returned to the UK two years later, to introduce the product into the UK & European market.[1] In 1990 – 1996, he moved to Sybase, a RDBMS (Relational Database Management System) where he switched from a technical management position into marketing, laterly running their European Product Marketing team. Robinson was subsequently part of the founding team in Europe, of Siebel Systems (1996 – 2003), a pioneer of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Software. Robinson remained at Siebel for 7 years, helping to grow the European business from six people to well over 2000, and establish CRM as a new business software category in Europe. Robinson's final role at Siebel Systems was VP International Marketing and Alliances. After Siebel was acquired by Oracle for £5.85bn in 2005, Robinson left to join Salesforce.com (2003 – 2007), where he was part of a team that launched the company in Europe. He was promoted by Marc Benioff, (CEO & Chair) to Chief Marketing Officer over a year later, and once more, moved to San Francisco to pursue the role. During this time, Salesforce.com successfully completed its IPO.[2][3][4]

Prior to his return to the UK, Robinson was also Chief Executive Office at CacheLogic.[5]

On return to the UK, Robinson was appointed CEO of Velocix, formerly CacheLogic (2007 – 2008), a Venture Capital backed video content delivery network, on the internet. Robinson's remit was to commercialise the proposition, bring the product to market and begin selling to new customers.  He initiated a partnership with Verizon and trials with BBC iPlayer. However, after 18 months of increasing video delivery traffic on the network, Robinson clashed with investors over product investment levels, and resigned. The business was then sold to Alcatel Lucent.[6]

Robinson joined IRIS Software (2009 – 2017), one of Europe's largest Private Equity backed software companies.[7][8] He was responsible for its Accountancy Software Division, and lead the spin-out of the Accountancy business, from the Group in 2011. Through the sale of the business by Hellman Friedman to Hg, the new company inherited the use of the IRIS brand, and operated as an independent business, to the former Group. As CEO Robinson tripled the size of the business over four years through organic growth and M&A. In 2016 Robinson was appointed chair of the business and worked alongside this as an Operating Partner for Hg. This role included a stint as Interim CEO of Achilles.[9]

Robinson was appointed CEO of Exact Software in the Netherlands by APAX Partners (a private equity firm) in September 2017. In parallel, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease also in September 2017. However, he remained CEO of Exact and under APAX Partners ownership, Robinson restructured the business in 2018. He then led the sale of Exact Software to another leading Private Equity firm, KKR, in 2019 for 1.65bn euros.

Under Robinson's leadership, in 2020, Exact acquired its long time competitor, Unit4's domestic Dutch business. Robinson managed a leadership transition in 2020, with Exact Software’ COO, Paul Ramakers becoming CEO. Robinson remains a member of the supervisory board and Chair of the Remuneration Committee.[10]

In April 2022, Robinson founded Boardwave, a networking community aimed at bringing together software leaders in Europe. By May 2023, the Boardwave community had grown to 850 Founders, CEOs and Software Leaders, representing almost every country in Europe. Boardwave aims to provide leaders with resources and mentorship, and improve access to capital. It is backed by over 50 founding partners, including a consortium of 27 leading software investors in Venture and Private Equity.[11][12] He is currently the Chair of the Software Advisory Board for Livingbridge, a UK Private Equity firm. Non-Exec Director of Upliift Software (formerly known as Expedition Holdings Ltd) and a Chair & member of the Development Board of Cure Parkinsons’.[13][14][15][16]