We've spent the past few weeks reporting our annual feature on corporate development careers to be published in the July 6 issue of The Deal. It's the third time we've explored the topic (see our first two installments
here and
here), and the career paths corporate dealmakers follow in and out of the profession is always part of the discussion.
A less commonly traveled path is from dealmaker to chief executive, but it's one we've seen at least a couple of times this year, with both cases involving startups. The first was Virgin Media Inc. dealmaker Ernie Cormier taking the
top job at gaming startup Zeemote Inc. in January. And now we get word that longtime software executive Howard Koenig has become CEO of venture-backed Aruspex, maker of strategic workforce planning software.
Koenig joins Aruspex from global software provider Sword Group (NYSE:SWP), where he headed up North American operations and strategic acquisitions, a position he accepted after Sword purchased his software company CTSpace in 2008. As CEO of CTSpace, Koenig oversaw a number of transactions, including the purchase of BuildOnline and the spinoff of Koral to Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE:CRM).
Koenig also previously was CEO of startups BenefitAmerica and Responsys, a partner in the venture firm Nucleus Partners, corporate vice president of operations for Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) and a senior director of systems integration for Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ:ORCL).
That
Koenig's career has zig-zagged in and out of multiple business and executive roles is a huge plus for a dealmaker. It's given him a deep network of contacts in the startup, venture capital and corporate worlds -- not to mention a wide angle view of the software industry. Together, those things will serve him well in his latest challenge leading Aruspex.
- Suzanne Stevens
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