Phill Robinson

Phill Robinson (born 21 November 1965) is a British businessman and the founder and CEO of Boardwave, a European networking community for software CEOs and Investors. He is the former chief executive officer of IRIS Software Group and Exact Software in the Netherlands. He was also Chief Marketing Officer at Salesforce.com.

Early life

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.

Career

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 market in the US. He returned to the UK two years later, to introduce the product into the UK & European market. 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 the region. Robinson's final role at Siebel Systems was VP International Marketing and Alliances. 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 in 2004, and once more, moved to San Francisco to pursue the role. Following the success of Salesforce, Siebel was acquired by Oracle for £5.85bn in 2005. During this time, Salesforce.com successfully completed its IPO.

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 early trials with the BBC for its recently launched 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.

Robinson joined IRIS Software (2009 – 2017), one of Europe's largest Private Equity backed software companies. 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.

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. Undetered, 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 the domestic business, in the Netherlands, of its long time competitor, Unit4. 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.

In April 2022, Robinson founded Boardwave, a networking community aimed at bringing together software leaders in Europe. By February 2025, the Boardwave community had grown to 2000 Founders, CEOs and Software Leaders, representing almost every country in Europe. Boardwave aims to build a European community & ecosystem that creates the same conditions for success for all European software companies, that have existed in the US, Silicon Valley and other global regions for 20 years. And has a 10 year vision to move Europe from a laggard to leader in the sector.  Boardwave is focussed on community rather than profit, provide leaders with resources, networking, mentorship, and improve access to capital. It is backed by a consortium of over 80 founding partners, including 30 leading software investors in Venture and Private Equity, and over 100 Angel Investors. 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) a Trustee of Cure Parkinson's and a member of the Development Board.

In March 2024, Phill Robinson authored a whitepaper titled “How the UK & Europe can lead the global software industry by 2034”.

In January 2025, Robinson was named as ‘the most connected man in UK tech’ by Entrepreneur Magazine.

Charity & Philanthropy

Following his Parkinson's Diagnosis in 2017, Robinson led a campaign in the Netherlands to raise awareness of the symptoms of Young Onset Parkinson's and issues with Parkinson's’ in the workplace. Particularly focusing on prejudice experienced by people with Parkinsons’ and other chronic diseases.

Once he returned to the UK, Robinson became Chair of the Development Board for Cure Parkinsons’. This Advisory group was set up to raise the profile of Cure Parkinson's and its research work, and develop and identify new funding channels so that curative research could be undertaken more quickly. He subsequently joined the Board of Trustees in late 2023, also remaining a member of the Development Board.

Each year, profit that is surplus to Boardwave's cash flow requirements is donated to medical research at Cure Parkinson's.

Personal life

Phill is married to Jessica Delaney Robinson. He has 3 daughters from a previous relationship.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Phill
Living people
1965 births