New Board for WherScape to Oversee Growth

New Board for WherScape to Oversee Growth

Data technology company WhereScape has boosted its board with a number of new appointments, creating a sound governance platform for the international business which is currently on an explosive growth curve.

Chair of the NZ-headquartered company is John Quirk, a director and partner at Howard & Company, where his work focuses on strategic investment and advisory. He also acts as a senior management advisor and mentor to a number of companies at various stages of development, often via board representation and is an investor in high tech, high growth companies.

CEO and co-founder Michael Whitehead is a data warehousing industry veteran who has spent more than a decade designing and building commercial data warehouses in a wide variety of industries. Prior to founding WhereScape, Michael had Asia Pacific responsibilities for data warehousing for Sequent Computer Systems, Inc.

Matthew Houtman co -founded Pioneer Capital, which recently took a stake in WhereScape. He has been an investor in, advisor to and director of private businesses in Europe, the United States and New Zealand. He also has extensive experience in planning and executing financings, acquisitions and growth strategies in many markets, primarily the telecoms, media, technology and healthcare industries.

Rounding out the WhereScape board are two new appointments; US-based Mark Budzinski and Christchurch's Sarah smith.

President of WhereScape USA, Mark Budzinski previously held management positions at Intel, Sequent Computer Systems, RadiSys, and Applied Microsystems. He holds an MBA from the Univ. of Oregon, a Master's Degree in Computer Science from the Univ. of Southern California, a BS in Industrial Engineering from Lehigh Univ.

Sarah Smith is a chartered accountant, has extensive business and governance experience in both the private and public sectors. She has held key financial and business development roles in a variety of businesses both in New York and New Zealand.

As an independent director Sarah has 18 years' experience and currently holds positions as Chairman of Meteorological Services of New Zealand (MetService), Director Christchurch City Holdings Ltd, Director EcoCentral Ltd, Director SLI Systems Ltd and Director of The Lion Foundation. Sarah is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and is an Accredited Fellow of the Institute of Directors.

WhereScape has also just added to its senior management team appointing Mark Otten as its CFO. Mark has extensive international experience in the US, Europe, Asia and Australasia holding senior financial and commercial roles with multinational companies including Ernst & Young, The Walt Disney Company and Polo Ralph Lauren. Prior to WhereScape Mark was the Chief Financial Officer for EziBuy Ltd. and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

CEO Michael Whitehead said the new governance was critical for WhereScape as it moves into a new phase. "We are bringing in some sound wins, like our most recent one, Tesco in the UK, and it's important for us to keep fine -tuning our processes.

"We're running a robust and profitable business that is showing consistent year on year growth of between 15-20%. Replacing our former advisory board with a governance-oriented board is a logical step for us."

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