Terry Waters

Terry Waters is an experienced CEO, board member, business operator, leadership advisor, go-to-market strategist, and business builder. The past three decades have been spent collaborating with private equity sponsors in the technology, information, marketing, research, financial and professional services industry sectors to scale and then exit profitably from portfolio companies, including software platforms, tech-enabled businesses, and information services enterprises.

Terry started his career in sales at Xerox Corporation after graduating from the College of the Holy Cross, where he played Varsity Football for four years.

Terry spent 18 years at Gartner (NYSE: IT), the leading global technology research, analytics, and advisory firm, starting as an Account Executive and ending as the Chief Marketing Officer and an Executive Committee member. Over that tenure, Terry aided company growth from $10M to $1.5B in annual revenue that contributed to a highly successful IPO and a market capitalization of $5B+ at the time of his exit. Specific results include leading a significant part of the US sales organization, founding the highly successful EXP membership subscription business, building the global marketing team, and heading a $150M division of the global research and analytics business.

Additional formative operating roles included being COO for Screaming Media, a content syndication and business services provider where he drove revenue growth to $25M and partnered with the CEO to execute a successful IPO on NASDAQ, and President for Evanta, a Leeds Equity portfolio company, where the led the development and growth of several new digital products that positioned the business for a $300M sale to CEB.

This range of functional roles and industry experiences enabled Terry to become CEO and a Board Member for the following businesses:

• Devada. (2018-2023) A business backed by SFW Capital that focused on building digital communities where software developers and technology professionals could learn, share insights, and collaborate. Terry drove a growth strategy that led to the successful sales of the software business to IgniteTech and the media/marketing services business to TechnologyAdvice.
• Roubini Global Economics. (2014-2016) A strategic turnaround of this global macroeconomic research and analytics firm resulted in a successful sale to Continuum Economics.
• Yankee Group. (2011 -2013) A business backed by Alta Growth Equity that focused on the telecom and mobile markets delivering research, advisory, and analytic services to F1000 customers. Terry led a turnaround the resulted in the successful sale of the business to S&P Global.
• Highline Financial. (2008-2010) A Spire Capital portfolio company that delivered real time banking data to investment firms and other corporate clients. Implementation of several strategic initiatives resulted in the successful sale of the business to Thomson Reuters.

Terry has decades of board-level experience driving strategic ideas and leading innovative companies to market leadership and successful financial outcomes. Terry currently serves on the Board of Nectar, Inc. and on the Advisory Boards for See|Me, Northeastern University, and Gearbox Capital.

Terry works with CEOs, leadership teams and Boards on various aspects of their leadership and operating models including executing organizational change programs, driving effective communication with key stakeholders, facilitating transitions of senior leaders into new roles, and implementing new recurring revenue go-to-market strategies.