Calero, a leader in the high-growth technology expense management (TEM) software space, announced today that its board of directors has chosen the company’s existing President Scott Gilbert to lead Calero going forward, and that former CEO Charles Layne has stepped down from his position. Calero and MDSL, two leaders in the TEM space, merged in January 2020 in a transaction led by investors Riverside Partners and Oak Hill Capital to create Calero. Since the merger, Gilbert has been responsible for leading the integration of the two companies across all functional areas, in addition to driving change across its global operations, product and technology organizations.
“As Calero enters the next era of its growth and innovation, there is no better person to lead the company than Scott Gilbert,” said Steven F. Kaplan, General Partner at Riverside Partners and Chairman of Calero’s Board of Directors. “Scott is a proven leader with an incredibly rich depth of experience and knowledge in technology, operations, sales, and finance. Over our nearly ten years of working with Scott, in both this and previous investments, he has consistently led his teams to deliver exceptional growth, and operational excellence. We are also extremely thankful for Charles Layne’s leadership as we brought these two great companies together over the past nine months and wish him well as he moves on to pursue other opportunities.”
“I am truly honored by the opportunity to lead Calero into its next phase of growth” said Gilbert. “In particular, I am extremely excited to roll out the company’s 2021 plan which will focus on accelerating the technology, service, and vision we aim to deliver to our employees and customers. I also want to thank Charles Layne for the tremendous work he has done over the past nine months leading us as we worked to merge two outstanding organizations.”
“Scott has the full support of our board of directors and the investors at Riverside Partners, Oak Hill Capital, and Sumeru Equity,” added Adam Hahn, Principal at Oak Hill Capital. “Scott is uniquely suited to take the reins from Charles and lead Calero into its next phase of growth.”
Prior to joining the company in December 2018, Gilbert spent over twenty years in executive positions with telecom organizations focused heavily upon the software technology platforms upon which they ran. Most recently, Gilbert led the technology and operations organizations as Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer at FirstLight Fiber, a previous portfolio investment of both Riverside Partners and Oak Hill Capital.
“After an historic 2020, with record bookings, customer execution and company integration, Calero is set up to continue to grow as the leader in the technology expense management market.” Gilbert concluded, “We will look to drive further growth by focusing on two core areas: innovation and experience. The upcoming launch of our market changing benchmarking feature designed to provide customers with instant visibility into market rates is just one example of the innovation yet to come. I am excited to lead Calero into this new era.”
About Calero
Calero is a leading provider of Technology Expense Management solutions designed to provide clarity, control, compliance and cost savings. With a deep commitment to innovation and customer service, Calero partners with enterprises to provide a unified expense management platform that supports Telecom Expense Management, Managed Mobility Services, the Internet of Things and Financial Market Data Management. Calero has thousands of customers in over 50 countries worldwide, including corporations, universities, financial institutions and government agencies. Learn more at www.calero.com or www.mdsl.com.
About Oak Hill Capital
Oak Hill Capital is a private equity firm managing funds with approximately $15 billion of initial capital commitments and co-investments since inception. Over the past 33 years, Oak Hill Capital and its predecessors have invested in over 90 private equity transactions across broad segments of the U.S. and global economies. Oak Hill Capital applies an industry-focused, theme-based approach to investing in the following sectors: Consumer, Retail & Distribution; Industrials; Media & Communications; and Services. Oak Hill works actively in partnership with management to implement strategic and operational initiatives to create franchise value. For more information, please visit https://oakhill.com/.
About Riverside Partners
Founded in 1989, Riverside Partners is a middle market private equity firm currently investing Riverside Fund VI, L.P. The fund focuses on growth-oriented companies primarily in the healthcare and technology industries. Riverside Partners is particularly experienced at partnering with founders, owners and management teams and it brings substantial domain expertise and operating experience to its portfolio companies. For more information, visit http://www.riversidepartners.com/.
