Verdane announces senior hires to bolster tech-ops Elevate team

Verdane, the European specialist growth investor, has announced the appointment of two senior hires who will join its leading Elevate team. Elevate is Verdane’s team of in-house operational experts in all functions needed for scaling businesses, including go-to-market, data, finance and talent. Elevate offer hands-on support to all Verdane’s portfolio companies Anne-Marie Andric, an HR professional with more than 25 years of industry experience, joins Verdane’s Elevate team as Chief People Officer. The company also announces that Peter Roberts, a leading energy and decarbonisation expert, has joined Elevate as Chief Sustainability & Commercial Decarbonisation Officer.

Both new hires will be based in Verdane’s Stockholm office and will work as part of the Elevate team of more than 30 operational advisors to support the Verdane portfolio of more than 80 businesses.

Formerly the HR director at Microsoft Sweden from 2011-2014, Anne-Marie has also held roles at iZettle and Husqvarna Group. Anne-Marie is also one of the co-founders of HR the Real Deal, a non-profit HR organisation promoting and sharing learnings from real HR practitioners. Peter joins Verdane from H2 Green Steel, where he led development of the steel industry’s most advanced carbon model and implementation of dual-ledger carbon accounting. He previously managed Bain & Company’s global carbon transition team and spent a decade working in the energy industry. Verdane is committed to remaining an industry leader in sustainability and is the first private equity firm globally to commit to neutralising all future residual carbon emissions with engineered, permanent carbon removals. The firm also ranked in the top 10 purchasers of carbon offsets globally – the only private equity firm to do so.

Attracting and retaining leading talent is a vital task for growing companies, particularly as businesses seek to address Europe’s skills gap. More than 75% of EU companies have found it difficult to find workers with the correct skill set and 3% of available jobs remain vacant, according to research released by the EU last year.

Growing companies are also increasingly aware of the need for genuine investments into decarbonisation and the importance of sustainable business practices, a key way to build investor as well as consumer trust. Today, 9 out of 10 investors consider ESG in some part of their investment approach. Numerous studies also show the correlation between sustainable practices and commercial success; for example, one such study shows sustainability-related products and markets growing on average 10-20% faster than their conventional counterparts.

Elevate is Verdane’s in-house operational expert team, providing strategic and operational support on strategic projects to elevate performance and growth. It has carried out more than 750 operational enhancement projects over the last 12 months and also offers portfolio companies access to more than 600 CXOs as partners, delivering one of Europe’s most powerful ecosystems to unlock growth potential. Anne-Marie will join Elevate’s existing team of four talent experts, while Peter will become Elevate’s fourth sustainability expert.

The senior hires will strategically bolster Elevate’s capabilities, allowing portfolio companies greater HR support and doubling down on the firm’s sustainability and decarbonisation leadership. These hires follow Verdane’s announcement last month that it has closed its oversubscribed Freya XI fund at its hard cap of €1.1 billion.

Ellen Nyhus, the CEO of Elevate, commented: “It’s hugely exciting to be able to welcome these two experienced business leaders to our Elevate team. We pride ourselves on our partnership culture, as well as our commitment to value creation. For a business, partnering with Verdane as an investor means access to deep sector expertise, as well as functional experts, relevant networks and ecosystem support. The addition of Anne-Marie and Peter to the Elevate team will unlock even more value for our portfolio.”