Our Leadership
Team
Executive Team
Gareth Burton
Chief Executive Officer
Gareth Burton joined Orbus as CEO in September 2022. He has extensive experience at international technology companies and SaaS businesses, previously holding the position of CEO at ThinkProject, alongside senior roles at Motorola and BT. Burton has held board level IT positions within the oil and gas, mining and construction sectors and has 10 years experience as a CIO, working for companies such as Laing O'Rourke and Baker Hughes.
Across his career, Burton has led large digital transformation programs and will use his expertise to lead Orbus Software into the next stage of its growth. Burton passionately believes there is a huge opportunity for companies to digitalise today, but need the visibility to truly transform.
Peter Bates
Chief Commercial OfficerI am privileged to have been on the Orbus journey since the beginning, from a tiny start-up with great ideas almost 20 years ago, to a global leader in the EA and digital transformation software space today – it has been a fantastic journey!
Over this time I have partnered with and learnt from hundreds of organizations, helping them to solve their business process, enterprise architecture and transformation challenges with Orbus’ innovative software solutions.
Today, based in New York, my role at Orbus is Chief Commercial Officer, and President of Orbus Software North America.
Outside of work I can be found with my family in Brooklyn or sailing on New York Harbor.
Rupert Colbourne
Chief Technology OfficerI have been with Orbus Software since its founding, driving the ongoing vision and delivery of Orbus Software’s product portfolio to ensure that its customers meet the increasing demands of enterprise-scale transformation.
Over the last 15+ years, I have pioneered Orbus’ unique development approach: leveraging the Microsoft technology stack to provide familiar, easy-to-use tools that deliver maximum ROI for customers.
Outside of work, I'm an avid cyclist and live in Hertfordshire with my wife and children.
Oliver Hecquer
Chief Customer OfficerI first joined Orbus Software in 2016, and have been working as Chief Customer Officer since early 2021.
My career to date has been a fantastic adventure. At various points you would have found me manning the grill station at a posh NYC restaurant, calling real estate agents across Australia to develop the sales capability at a budding telecom, unpicking tuition payments-gone-wrong for international students at a now billion-dollar start-up, consulting for Accenture, or, since 2016, building Orbus’ market-leading customer teams across Professional Services, Customer Success, Support and Customer Ops.
I've learned a lot on my journey so far and am passionate about helping our customers and internal teams cut through “noise” to deliver real value, both for themselves and their organizations, while having plenty of fun along the way.
Peter Bates
President of North America
I joined the team at Orbus in September 2019, I am a qualified accountant, having completed a Bachelor of Business degree, majoring in Accounting, at Swinburne University in Australia. I have over 20 years experience in senior commercial roles across a variety of sectors, including media, professional services, telecommunications, sport and gambling. With a broad range of experience in both large and small businesses from multinationals to high-growth owner managed, VC backed and AIM listed companies, driving growth in SME’s has been a focus and a passion. As CFO-COO at Orbus I work with key stakeholders across the business to ensure the delivery of the company’s strategic objectives and execution of our growth plans. Outside of the office, I practice karate with my two children in West London, where we live.
Andre Nguyen
Chief Legal OfficerI joined the Orbus Software team in June 2021 as the Head of Legal and was later appointed as Company Secretary, driving the legal and corporate governance program for the Group.
Prior to joining Orbus Software, I was the Head of Commercial and Legal at AXELOS (formerly a joint venture between HM Cabinet Office and Capita plc) and held legal counsel and compliance roles with CBRE Group and Kaplan. I have completed transactions in the UK, Australia, Greece and Singapore across the roles.
I am an Australian qualified lawyer, having trained with HWL Ebsworth Lawyers in Sydney.
Outside of the office, I am an avid rugby fan and live in West London with my wife, daughter and two pets.
Thorsten Fuchs
Chief Marketing OfficerMy professional career in the IT industry started more than 20 years ago as a young tech enthusiast with an academic background in mathematics and computer science. I feel blessed for the journey I have travelled so far that let me experience both the fundamental crisis of IT in the late 90s and the following rebirth with the rise of cloud, mobile and AI technologies that led to the digital revolution we are seen all around us now. During my sales, marketing and consulting roles at leading global companies - McKinsey, Microsoft, AWS and ServiceNow - I was exposed to the specific challenges and opportunities of different growth phases of each organization that gifted me with tremendous learning about our industry. Here at Orbus I feel fundamentally grateful to be given the opportunity to grow a best in class global marketing function with a fantastic team of great people. My private life is dedicated to my wonderful family - my wife and I are living in a small village outside of Munich together with our dog and our horses, you will find us most of the time in the barn.
Kate Laurie
Chief People OfficerI work with Orbus to bring our People Agenda to life. With experience and passion for delivering strategic impact through people within high-growth digital and cybersecurity organizations, I play a vital part in delivering a people-centric agenda to all here at Orbus.
As a fast paced and constantly changing company, it is vital we ensure our people have a brilliant experience with us here at Orbus, where everyone has the opportunity to grow both personally and professionally. High engagement leads to high performance and success, for not just our people, but also our customers.
Based in deepest darkest Kent, me and my family of boys all love the beach and beautiful local countryside. I'm a self-proclaimed ‘sports addict’; you'll regularly find me on the hockey pitch or tennis court, as well cheering on my team from the side lines as a women’s hockey coach.
Sharon Ferris
Chief of StaffSharon joined Orbus in early 2021; with over 20 years experience working with Chief Executives and Board members, predominantly in Finance and Technology sectors, she has been supporting businesses post acquisition as they transition to ‘business as usual’. Having held various roles within the Office of the CEO, being involved in a variety of projects and challenges has made sure that no two days are ever the same!
Outside of work, you will find Sharon on the sidelines supporting the variety of sports her son enjoys playing and spending valuable family time with their Schnoodle, enjoying long walks in the Surrey countryside.
Bryan Bailey
Interim Finance DirectorBryan joined Orbus as Interim FD in Jun-22. He has significant experience leading high performance finance teams at large technology companies, most recently as Interim FD at Dext, the accounting software provider.
Prior to that, Bryan held the position of Group Controller at Temenos, (the Swiss listed enterprise software provider for the FS sector) as well as CFO of their SaaS Division.
Bryan previously held multiple senior international finance roles at Misys after qualifying at Arthur Andersen. Bryan is bringing his considerable experience and expertise to professionalising both finance and operations at Orbus Software in order to support and enable the next stage of growth.
Board Members
Adam Hale
Adam Hale joined the Orbus board in early 2021. His other roles include Chairman of Arctic Shores, Chairman of ScaleUp Institute, Venture Partner at Notion Capital and board advisor to e-days.
Adam taught himself to code in 1981 as a teenager and since then has spent his whole life in the technology industry as a consultant, headhunter and then CEO of a SaaS firm where he led the global scale up through an acquisition. He ‘went plural’ in 2017.
Adam passionately believes in market leadership and helping organizations on the path to get there.
Outside work you will find him with his family or likely on a bike somewhere.
John Messamore
John Messamore is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of SilverTree Equity. John is primarily responsible for deal origination, due diligence, valuation, transaction execution, operational improvements and portfolio monitoring.
Prior to co-founding SilverTree Equity, John was an investment professional at Advent International where he focused on the software, technology, business services and industrials sectors. John previously served on the boards of Unit4 NV, FinancialForce, Inc. (observer), Equinova (related to Nexi S.p.A.), and ICE S.p.A. Prior to Advent, John held positions at Evercore Partners, Roark Capital Group and Lazard.
John is a British and U.S. national. He graduated with distinction from the University of Virginia with a B.S. in Commerce, where he received the Edgar F. Shannon award for distinguished leadership and academic achievement.
Vin Murria OBE
Vin’s career has included a combination of venture capital, private equity and CEO/operational experience, centered around twenty years of M&A activity in the software sector. Vin was founder and Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Computer Software plc which sold for £765m to Vista Equity Partners in 2015.
Vin started her career at Kewill Systems plc in 1986, becoming Group COO, and finally exiting in March 2000 at a valuation of 1.2bn. Vin is currently a non-executive director at Softcat Plc, Senior TMT Advisor at Rothschild, and Operating Partner at HG Capital.
In 2007 Vin formed and funded the PS Foundation, a charitable foundation targeted at educating and supporting women in India and the UK.
Nicholas Theuerkauf
Nicholas is the Founder and Managing Partner of SilverTree Equity. Prior to founding SilverTree Equity, Nicholas was an investment professional at HgCapital and Marlin Equity Partners where he focused on the software, technology, and business services sectors.
Nicholas began his career at Goldman Sachs in investment banking where he specialized in mergers & acquisitions, debt & equity financings and other strategic advisory initiatives, primarily in the software and technology industries.
Nicholas is a German and U.S. national. He earned a dual degree from the University of Pennsylvania and received a B.S. in Economics-Finance from The Wharton School and a B.A. in Economics from the College of Arts and Sciences. He graduated magna cum laude in both degrees.
Matthew Harris
Matthew Harris is an Operating Partner at SilverTree Equity with over 20 years of experience leading financial due diligence engagements and advising private equity firms on asset acquisitions and disposals across a broad range of industries, including software, technology, and business services. Matt is a Chartered Accountant and was previously a partner at KPMG in the Private Equity Group in London where he advised on a large number of transactions from “mega buyouts” to mid-market and smaller, growing businesses in Europe and globally. Matthew was also a senior managing director at FTI Consulting and a Director at Deloitte in their transaction services team. Matthew has extensive board experience and is currently a board member of several private equity backed companies. Matthew is a UK and New Zealand national. He has lived and worked in London for more than 20 years. He received an MBA from Manchester Business School and a Bachelor of Commerce in Economics and Finance from the University of Auckland.
Advisory Board
Kirill Tatarinov
Kirill is a board advisor and brings thirty-five years of enterprise software & services industry experience, having previously served as President and CEO of Citrix Systems, Inc., President of Microsoft Business Solutions, CTO of BMC Software, Inc. and co-founder of Patrol Software.
Kirill is the Executive Vice Chairman at Acronis, Inc and a non-exec Chair at ITRS Group & Spitch AG. He serves on the board of Logically, Inc. and mentors aspiring technology start-ups. He is also a senior advisor to several private equity and investment firms.
He holds an M.S. in Computers from the Moscow University of Transport Engineering and an MBA from Houston Baptist University.
Lou Franco
Lou is a software product development veteran with experience delivering software for financial institutions, enterprise companies and startups.
He is a former Principal Engineer at Trello/Atlassian and has been a technical executive at three startups with successful exits.
Lou co-authored a book about iOS development for Manning and is a named inventor on patents related to rich internet clients and spreadsheets.
Daniel Cook
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Dan Cook
Dan Cook is currently the CEO of PDQ.com, a provider of software to IT and system administrators.
Prior to joining PDQ.com, Dan was the Chief Revenue Officer at Lucid Software (maker of Lucidchart) where he was responsible for building Lucid's go-to-market teams.
Dan began his career working in investment banking at Piper Jaffray and later as an investor at Polaris Venture Partners. He studied Economics and Accounting at Brigham Young University and has a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School.