Non-executive director and Chair appointments
Non-executive director and Chair appointments
Availability
Robin Smith takes non-executive director and Chair appointments on the boards of B2B and vertical software companies, whether founder led, venture backed or private equity owned.
Boards of software companies increasingly want substantive operating experience alongside generalist governance capability. The questions that decide whether a software business hits its plan are commercial and operational: whether pricing holds, whether the sales motion survives the next hire, whether the product roadmap matches what customers will actually pay for, whether the management team is the one that gets you to exit.
Robin has held the executive roles rather than only advised on them. Over twenty years he has owned revenue and operations in software businesses from pre-revenue to more than £200M ARR, built and led the first European presence for US headquartered software companies, and served as Chief Operating Officer of Regnology, where he led due diligence and integration across four acquisitions and supported the partial divestiture to CPP Investments.
Appointments are normally on an annual retainer.
Contribution
Six areas where an operator on the board changes the quality of the conversation.
Reading a sales pipeline properly, testing whether a forecast is real, and knowing which commercial metrics predict the next four quarters rather than describe the last one. The single most common gap on software boards that have grown their finance and governance capability faster than their commercial capability.
Asking whether the structure the business has can carry the plan the board has approved, and being specific about where it will break first. Having run the restructures gives a view on what they actually cost in time and momentum.
Experience from both sides of the table across buy-side acquisitions, sell-side processes and post-deal integration, which translates into a realistic view of what a business needs to evidence well before a process starts.
Founders stepping back after a transaction, private equity owners professionalising a team, or a chief executive planning their own succession. Robin has seen these transitions from the executive and the acquirer side.
Separating genuine product advantage from hype, and pressing on whether an AI roadmap changes customer workflows or simply adds features. Informed by direct experience delivering enterprise-grade software into regulated industries.
For boards and investors who need someone who can read the business as an operator would, and who will say so plainly when the answer is uncomfortable.
Who this is for
Boards have come to value substantive operating experience alongside generalist board capability. The questions that decide a software company are commercial and operational.Why software boards recruit operators.
FAQ
Yes. He is available for non-executive director and Chair appointments on UK software company boards, normally on an annual retainer, across founder led, venture backed and private equity owned businesses. Where a board is not the right fit he will say so plainly, and will introduce others where someone else is better suited.
B2B and vertical market software businesses from roughly Series A through to more than £200M ARR, across founder led, venture backed and private equity owned ownership models. The common thread is a business where commercial and operating judgement is the binding constraint, not a lack of governance process.
A board role carries fiduciary duty, a fixed cadence and a governance responsibility to all shareholders. An advisory engagement is scoped to a problem and ends when it is solved. Where a board appointment is not the right fit, Corinium Advisory also works on operating partner mandates and commercial due diligence.
Also from Corinium Advisory
Embedded operating partner support for private equity funds and software portfolio companies, owning a mandate against the value creation plan.
Operating partnerBuy side and sell side diligence on software assets for private equity funds, credit funds, lenders and corporate acquirers, plus single expert consultations.
Due diligenceTwenty years scaling B2B SaaS and enterprise software across the UK, EMEA and the Americas. Former Chief Operating Officer of Regnology.
Operator profileContact