Peter Armstrong, Triple Point’s former CEO, is joining Eka’s Board of Directors – A ComTech Interview
A ComTech Alert Article
Commodity Technology Advisory (ComTech) was recently informed that Peter Armstrong, founder and former CEO of Triple Point Technology, has joined Eka’s Board of Directors. In light of this news, Patrick Reames, Managing Partner of ComTech, took opportunity to visit with both Peter and Manav Garg, Eka’s CEO and founder, to learn more about what drew Peter to the company and what this addition to the Board means for Eka.
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Patrick: It’s very interesting news, and I’m sure exciting for Eka, that Peter is joining the company’s Board. What brought about this addition to the Board?
Peter: Thanks, Patrick. As you know, I’ve had a strong interest in commodities management for a long time, and most of my career running an enterprise software business. After 20 years at Triple Point, I’m looking forward to focusing my energy on the strategic advisory roles of a director rather than the day-to-day operational tasks of an executive. Taking a board seat at Eka is a great opportunity for me to stay involved and to pass along some of the knowledge I’ve acquired through the years.
Manav: Peter is an excellent addition to the Board. Triple Point is a true enterprise software success story, and Peter will provide great insight into what worked and didn’t work. Peter led Triple Point through a generational shift from CTRM to CM. Eka is now leading a new generational shift to Smart Commodity Management solutions that include advanced analytics to make better, faster, fact-based decisions. Peter is in a unique position to provide us valuable advice as Eka leads this change in the market.
Peter: I have enormous respect for Manav — he’s built a fantastic product-focused company that operates very well in a complex and very interesting market. The market today is very different than it was twenty, ten, and even two years ago. Manav’s “Smart Commodity Management” vision is right on and I’m excited and honored to be in a position to help him and his team develop and grow the strategy.
Patrick: Manav, Peter mentioned “Smart Commodity Management” – for those that aren’t yet familiar with the term, can you give us your vision of what that means?
Manav: Commodity Management solutions have done an excellent job of capturing, integrating and sharing data across organizations. The next generation of these systems, the Smart Commodity Management solutions, will help customers make better, faster, smarter decisions in procurement, trading, risk, processing and supply chain. They will have a light footprint and aggregate and analyze extremely large data sets to provide real-time analytics for faster, fact-based decision making. Today, too much decision making either relies on gut feel, or is delayed waiting for proper analysis.
Patrick: Peter, you mentioned that the market has changed even within the last couple of years. Can Triple Point’s success in the CM space in the several years leading up to their acquisition by ION be repeated by others, given the current market?
Peter: Of course. The recipe is pretty simple: identify a large market opportunity, build a world-class product, develop a go-to-market strategy, and then execute with operational excellence. That’s what we did at Triple Point. We had a lot of success and, as a result, I have no doubt that Triple Point will continue to thrive and achieve success over the very long run.
Eka has also been successful and will continue to be successful for the same reasons. Manav has identified the market opportunity and has a clear view – not only of where the market is, but also of where it’s going. The company has built a web-based, modern product platform to support the Smart Commodity Management strategy and to meet the requirements of the most demanding commodity market participants. He’s also building out his management team and taking the necessary steps to achieve operational excellence.
As a director, I hope to be a sounding board to Manav and his team as they continue to broaden the company’s product offerings – through organic product development and also, perhaps, through targeted acquisitions. There’s also an opportunity and need to expand the company’s geographic reach and fill out its management team; I believe I can be helpful in both these areas as well.
Manav: Eka has been averaging 35% annual revenue growth over the last 5 years. We have the vision, product, team and investors to continue this rapid growth for years to come. Eka’s success can be seen in its customer list that includes market leading companies such as Cargill, CBH, Boliden, GrainCorp, Rio Tinto, Tata Steel, EDF, Twin Eagle, TD Bank, REG, Louis Dreyfus, and Mitsubishi Corporation.
In addition, there’s a perfect storm about to take place in this market – a coming together of cloud technology, new subscription pricing models, an explosion of data including unstructured data sources, and real-time analytics to drive better decision making. This is the generational shift I referenced before, and there will be a new wave of adoption of these systems. I’m talking to industry executives every day. They recognize that if their competitors adopt these systems before they do, they will be at a big competitive disadvantage. I don’t want to compare us to Triple Point – Eka will set its own course — but the growth potential is huge.
Patrick: In the last year, Eka has attracted quite a bit of talent globally, including two former Triple Point senior executives – Greg Taylor recently came on board as President & COO and Michael Schwartz joined last year as Executive Vice President & CMO. Was the management team an important factor in your decision?
Peter: Absolutely. A strong team is essential to success. I’m very impressed with the Eka management team.
Manav: A key reason for Eka’s rapid growth has been its ability to attract the very best technology, commodity and product executives. From my perspective, Greg and Michael are great additions to an already strong leadership team and will help lead the company for years to come. Both have had much success in their careers, not only at Triple Point, but also at other enterprise software companies. I believe Eka has the best management team to deliver operational excellence and growth. We are poised for tremendous success.
Patrick: Gentlemen, thanks for taking the time to visit.
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