Ben Kepes – Disclosure Statement

Disclosure statement – Updated June 19th, 2018: As a specialist, Ben is sometimes paid by companies for advice and speaking engagements. While these relationships could prove challenging when it comes to writing about those companies, Ben strives to retain his editorial independence at all times. Notwithstanding this independence, Ben considers transparency in these matters to be crucial. To this end here follows a full disclosure of Ben’s interests.

Note that any advisory roles that Ben undertakes on a free basis (ie with no compensation in cash or in kind) are considered irrelevant in terms of disclosure and will not be detailed on this page – for reference Ben speaks with many organizations every day – both buy side and sell side – and gives them broad ranging feedback.

Ben is a Director of Diversity Limited, a business owned by the Kepes family that is a vehicle for investment, advice and consultancy. Diversity has holdings in manufacturing, property and technology companies and undertakes advisory work.

Current advisory roles and investments:

Previous advisory roles and investments:

  • Ben is an investor in Revert.io prior to its acquisition by OneLogin
  • Ben was an investor in Lendr, formerly known as PropertyPlot, prior to its acquisition
  • Ben was an investor in Publons prior to its acquisition by Clarivate
  • Ben was an advisor to and investor in ClusterHQ
  • Ben was an advisor to and investor in Pasiv
  • Ben was an adviser to DCHQ prior to its acquisition by Gridstore
  • Ben was an adviser to MadeiraCloud
  • Ben was an investor in LearnKo
  • Ben was an advisor to and investor in Kismatic prior to its acquisition by Apprenda
  • Ben was an adviser to ActiveState prior to its acquisition by Hewlett Packard Enterprise
  • Prior to its collapse, Ben was a member of the GigaOm Pro analyst community, in this role Ben took on briefing calls, underwritten report writing, and webinars.
  • Ben was an advisor to and investor in Tylr Mobile
  • Ben was an adviser to CloudImmunity
  • Ben was co-founder of LiveMigrate
  • Ben was an investor in and director of Connect2Field prior to its acquisition by Fleetmatics Group PLC (FLTX)
  • Ben was an advisor to and investor in Appsecute prior to its acquisition in June 2013 by ActiveState
  • Ben was an adviser to WaveAdept prior to its acquisition by Cloud Sherpas
  • Ben was an adviser to billFLO prior to its acquisition by Taulia
  • Ben was an adviser to RPM Retail
  • Ben was an adviser to the 2C Light Company
  • Ben was an adviser to Patch Productions
  • Ben was a non-executive director of RIS Group, a NZAX listed company

Current and/or previous clients of Diversity Limited and/or Ben Kepes include (to the best of my knowledge this list is complete, but E&OE):

  • Ben has consulted to the following vendors: HelloSign, ServiceNow, Amazon/Amazon Web Service, CenturyLink, Nuage Networks, Hedvig, Skyhigh Networks, OutSystems, ClearLogin, FinancialForce, Ping Identity, Boundary, MuleSoft, Vordel, BMC Software, Salesforce, Intuit, Xero, Mindtouch, Zuora, Aria, Monexa, Vindicia, Intacct, Rackspace, Zendesk, IBM, Mainsoft, NetSuite, Box, Zoho, Microsoft, Spark New Zealand, SITA, MYOB, The OpenStack Foundation
  • The following vendors have provided hardware for long-term testing loan: HP, Toshiba, Dell, Samsung, Huawei, OnePlus
  • Ben consults widely with end-user organizations and has done work for The Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Environment Waikato, The Taupo District Council, Orion Health
  • Ben has been involved with a number of technology conferences including: Glue, Defrag, Cloud2020, CloudBeat, Interop, Cloud Connect, Lean 2015
  • Ben formerly curated the CloudU educational program for Rackspace
  • Ben was co-founder of bizchat, a community site for small and medium businesses in New Zealand
  • Ben has contracted to designindustry as a design strategist

Certain vendors comp travel and expenses claims. For the benefit of doubt, T&E reimbursement is a common practice among writers based outside of the US.

In his role as an industry commentator, Ben often receives free product from vendors. This is standard in the industry and Ben does not consider that these various arrangements require disclosure.

Ben is always interested in talking to organizations that could utilize his skills and experience – contact is welcome;

E ben@diversity.net.nz | M 021 2384136
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