Adam Warby

Chair, Ocado Group, Heidrick & Struggles; Non-Exec Director VISMA

Serving as Chairman of the Board for Ocado, Adam is passionate about how technology can enhance the way we live and work. Remarkably, more than two decades on from the beginnings of online commerce, the opportunities for growth, development and innovation remain, including in the online grocery sector , and he is excited to be part of the Ocado journey.

Elected in 2019 as Chair of Heidrick & Struggles, Adam continues to be ardent in supporting the global team to help businesses find and develop winning leadership teams using data-driven technology in over 70% of Fortune 1000 companies.

His consulting and advisory work sees him collaborating with a fascinating range of firms backed by the Venture and Private Equity sector including working with KKR, APAX and Hg.  

In his Executive career, he spent 5 years at IBM and 10 years at Microsoft in various international roles, followed by joining Avanade, a joint venture between Microsoft and Accenture as one of the founding Executives.

Serving as CEO over an 11 year period, he had the privilege of shaping its growth, culture, and vision, supporting a business of over 36,000 professionals and $3m in global sales , delivering innovative solutions that harnessed the power of people, the Microsoft platform and ecosystem to drive digital transformation.

Beyond business, Adam is committed to closing the career, technology, and income gaps for women and young people, which led to him taking on not-for-profit roles including Chairing Junior Achievement Europe.

When Adam is not engaging with investors, partners, or executive teams, you’ll find him spending time with his growing family, in the garden, on the tennis court, cycling, enjoying a rugby match or his newly found passion for golf.

MEET OUR PATRONS

Learn from Europe's most respected AI and tech leaders

Boardwave Patrons are the experienced leaders who have helped define European tech in their respective roles and fields. They've spent careers building successful businesses. Now they're helping the next generation scale faster.

Louise Hill

Founder & Executive Chair, GoHenry

Vin Murria, OBE

Chair, CEO, Founder, NED & Investor; Softcat, Bunzl, ADVT, Molten Ventures

Nic Humphries

Senior Partner & Executive Chair, Hg

Elona Mortimer-Zhika

Chair, NED, Investor, Mentor; Former CEO IRIS Software Group

Jean-Philippe Courtois

President & Co-founder, Live for Good; Former President, Microsoft Corp
France

Sabine Bendiek

Plural Chairperson & NED; Sensio, Suse, VISTRA, Schaeffler; Former Chief People Officer SAP, Managing Director, Microsoft GmbH
Germany

Chano Fernandez

Co-CEO, Klaviyo; Former Co-CEO eightfold and Workday

Martina King

Board Chair, Luminance; former CEO Featurespace

Adam Warby

Chair, Ocado Group, Heidrick & Struggles; Non-Exec Director VISMA

Dawn Marriott

Serial Exec Chair, Geomartikk, team.blue,Kinapse; Former Partner Hg, Joint COO Capita

Chris Bayne

CEO, The Access Group

Erin Platts

CEO, Octopus Ventures; Former CEO HSBC Innovation Bank, Silicon Valley Bank

Léo Apotheker

Chairman; Syncron, Eudonet, Harvest; Former CEO, SAP & HP; Boardwave NED
Switzerland

Sherry Coutu CBE

Independent NED Pearson, Standard Life, Raspberry Pi

Fred Hessabi

Investor, Advisor, Board Member; Strategic Advisor C3.ai, NED Intescia
France

Shruthi Chindular

NED & Board Member, Access Group & Byte Technology

Franck Cohen

Venture Partner & Board Advisor; Chairman GoCardless,CYE,Geektime
France

Jean-Pierre Saad

Managing Partner, CVC

Oystein Moan

Executive Chair, VISMA
Norway

Nezahat Gultekin

Independent Board Member, Logo Yazilim
Turkey

Jose Duarte

Chairman & Investor; Chair proALPHA, Hallo, Tax Systems
Portugal

Federico Leproux

CEO, TeamSystem Group

Melissa Di Donato

CEO and Chair, Kyriba; NED, Porsche AG, iNED JP Morgan (Europe) Ltd; Former CEO SUSE, Board Member DSIT

Simon Walsh

CEO, OneAdvanced

Steve Garnett

Angel Investor & Board Member; former President & Chair Salesforce Europe

Rich Waterworth

Founder & Former General Manager, Europe, TikTok

Vincenzo Esposito

CEO, Microsoft Italy

Gavin Patterson

NED, Advisor & Investor; Chair Kraken, Kahoot! NED Ocado; Former President Salesforce WW, CEO BT PLC

James Bennet MBE

Former Partner EY

Karen Slatford

Chair Bright Software, Chair Autorek and Chair Zaptic

Franz-Josef Seidensticker

Board Member & Investor; former Chair proAlpha, Wittur Group & Board Member, BAIN & Co
Germany

Maurizio Carli

Board Member, Temenos & Board International; former NED TIM, EVP WW VMware

Ajaz Ahmed

Founder, Studio.One ; Founder AKQA

Wol Kolade

Managing Partner, Livingbridge; Deputy Chair, NHS England; Co-Founder, 10,000 Black Interns

Esther Kerstholt

Creator Boardwave Exec Coaching Programme, Co-Founder Aberkyn; C-Suite Exec Coaching & Leadershiip Development
Netherlands

Emma Sinclair MBE

CEO, EnterpriseAlumni, Business Journalist - The Telegraph; former G7 & Unicef Advisor

Rory Cellan-Jones

Technology Writer, Podcast & Consultant; Author & ex-BBC Technology Correspondent

Jonathan McKay

Investor & Chairman, Chair Move.ai & Driftrock; Non Executive Director, Boardwave

Rod Banner

CEO, 3LA

Gillian Wilmot CBE

Chair, ZOO Digital Group; formerly MD, Royal Mail; NED, Admiral Group plc; NED, Nisa Retail

Peter Sweetbaum

Chair, Focus Group; formerly CEO, Ethixbase360; CEO, Content+Cloud

Michel Akkermans

Serial Entrepreneur, Private Investor, Advisor and Board Member
Belgium

Stephen Kelly

Company Builder & Entrepreneur, Angel Investor & Advisor; CEO Cirata, Former CEO Sage

Mattia Mor

Entrepreneur & Producer, Founder & CEO Emotion Network; former Member Italian Parliament, Sr Vice President Alibaba Europe (Mei.com, Lazada)

Pascal Houillon

Board Member, Volta Software; formerly, President and CEO, Cegid
France

Stephane Kurgan

Venture Partner, Index Ventures, Founder Queen, former COO King (Candy Crush)

Angie Gifford

Technology & Strategy Advisor for Goldman Sachs Portfolio Companies; Formerly Vice President EMEA, Meta; Supervisory Board Member, TUI, Rothschild & Co
Germany

Trusted and supported by Europe's leading investors and advisors

STRATEGIC Partners
Hg
McKinsey & Company
Alliance Partners
Alantra
Albertine
Alpha Advisory
Amazon Web Services
A&O Shearman
Arma Partners
ASSOSoftware
Bank of America
Berenberg
Canaccord Genuity Partners
Crosslake
Deloitte
Egon
Farringford Legal
Gazelle Law
GP Bullhound
Heidrick & Struggles
H.I. Executive Consulting (H.I.E.C)
HSBC Innovation Banking
IBM
Jamieson
Jefferies
La Fosse
LegalEdge
Liberty Corporate Finance
London Stock Exchange
Mindstone
OC&C
Portolano
Propel
Rothschild & Co
Rothschild & Co Wealth Management
Russell Reynolds Associates
Snowball
Solano Partners
Stifel
SuperScalers
Swedish Chamber of Commerce for the United Kingdom
Techspace
Teneo
Travers Smith
UBS
VenturePath
West Peak
Wilson Sonsini
Xoriant
INVESTOR Partners
A3c
Advent International
Apax Partners
Ares Management
AshGrove Capital
August Equity
Axiom Equity
Bain Capital
BC Partners
Beringea
BGF
Blackstone
Bridgepoint
Carlyle
CINVEN
Dawn Capital
FirstPartyCapital
Five Arrows
FPE
Francisco Partners
Frog Capital
GCP - Growth Capital Partners
Goldman Sachs Asset Management
Hellman & Friedman
H.I.G. Capital
Highland Europe
KKR
Livingbridge
Mercia Ventures
Oakley Capital
Osprey
Oxx
Permira
Rivean Capital
Sixth Street
Skøyen Software
Smedvig Capital
TA Associates
Thoma Bravo
Upliift
Ventech
Verdane
Warburg Pincus