Peppermint Technology appoints a new CEO as they invest in the next phase of growth

UK News

11
Apr
2018

Editor

Peppermint Technology, the market leading Cloud and Microsoft Application Platform for UK legal service providers, has today announced a new CEO as it embarks on its next phase of ambitious growth.  

Arlene Adams, Founder & current CEO of Peppermint Technology, announced that she will be appointing a successor, Gary Young, who will take over as CEO of Peppermint Technology on 16th April 2018. Young is a highly experienced and seasoned CEO with over 30 years industry experience, including a wealth of relevant cloud and software domain expertise. 

Adams commented “I set out to change a market and that’s what we are doing. Since our inception 8 years ago, Peppermint is the only software provider in the legal market to offer law firms all their core business applications in one platform, delivered from the cloud and based on an Industry Application Platform. This has allowed many firms, including 12 of the top 200, to access a modern, client centric, technology platform to support their future growth aspirations, free from the limitations of legacy software. “  

Adams goes on to say “With the advancement of new Microsoft technologies, particularly in Search and Artificial Intelligence (AI), Peppermint has a tremendous opportunity to leverage these new advancements to meet the specific needs of law firms and to materially enhance their performance. Understanding and translating this into a meaningful strategy and product takes a significant investment in time. Fulfilling this strategy is my passion and why I founded Peppermint. I therefore want to ensure I can invest the time I need in our strategy and that means hiring a CEO who can focus on delivering that strategy into an optimal experience for our clients”.  

Adams has been working for 9 months to find and appoint a successor.  Adams and the Board are delighted with the appointment of Gary Young.  Young has a strong track record of successfully leading high growth organisations that provide business critical solutions to sophisticated and demanding customers. His hallmark is the delivery of excellent customer service by highly skilled, motivated and committed teams. He joins Peppermint from KCOM Group PLC, where he held several Senior Executive positions, culminating in running the group’s £220 million mid-market and consumer businesses (including a number of law firms). Gary was instrumental in shaping the Group’s multi-million investment in next generation technology and services to the business and consumer community. Prior to that, Gary was CEO of the Mettoni Group Ltd. This was a private business focused on developing innovative communications software solutions in strategic partnership with Cisco and Nortel/Avaya across a number of international geographies. 

On appointment, Young commented “I am truly excited by the opportunity and potential of Peppermint. I am in no doubt that businesses are moving rapidly to the Cloud and they want to embrace modern, industry standard based, Application Platforms such as Microsoft Dynamics. Peppermint is perfectly positioned to help legal firms embrace the immense value that can be found in this approach. All the foundations are firmly in place and I see my role, in the months and years ahead, to ensure we realise this strategy and continue to deliver competitive and tangible benefits to our customers. I have every confidence we can do that, and I can’t wait to get started”.

Arlene Adams, who originally founded the business in 2010, will remain on the board and is still a key shareholder in Peppermint. In the immediate term Adams will work full time in the business alongside Gary Young as Executive Director. In the mid-term she will deliver her strategic role as Non-Executive Director which will allow Adams time to develop some wider personal interests alongside her role at Peppermint.  

Peppermint also announced a planned acceleration of product development. The Company will add further headcount to the development and test team to accelerate the current roadmap, which has been largely shaped by direct customer input and customer user groups. Further refinement of the current product, with added new features, will deliver additional automation and time savings within a law firm, alongside enhanced client engagement and collaboration tools. This further advances Peppermint’s strategy to enable firms to “be the law firm your clients want”. 

Adams commented on the future of Peppermint: “I am immensely proud of what Peppermint has achieved thus far. We have a track record of strong, consistent, year-on-year growth and we are now a substantial, fully established player in this market. However, I really believe we are still at the early stages of our journey and have a very long runway ahead of us. The legal market is changing, and technology will massively shape that landscape in the years ahead. The law firms that survive and thrive in the future will be client, tech and data centric businesses. All these attributes are connected and are the basis of the Peppermint strategy.  I believe Peppermint is the only software company to offer firms a credible alternative to legacy software and to provide a safe, futureproof, roadmap backed by Microsoft. As the global tech market moves rapidly towards Cloud, and Industry Application Platforms become the norm, law firms need to align to this or they are likely to find themselves in a cul-de-sac with existing technology. Peppermint offers firms an alternative approach which, as evidenced with current clients, helps firms realise huge financial and competitive value. Our investments announced today, in management and product, will only serve to accelerate Peppermint’s mission to change the legal services market.”