Focusing on deal sourcing and execution, value creation, and portfolio company monitoring.
Simon has over 25 years of leadership experience in technology, having both launched innovative start-ups and run large companies and divisions.
Prior to Arcspring, Simon was CEO of Superion, a Vista Equity Partners company and software provider to North American public sector agencies. Simon led a comprehensive transformation in every area of the business focused on product innovation, go-to-market execution, operational efficiency, and high-performing talent while achieving revenue and profit targets. In late 2018, Simon leveraged the newly transformed Superion platform to merge with two large rivals in a multi-billion-dollar transaction that created CentralSquare, with #1 market share in public safety software. In the year following the merger, Simon drove the rapid and successful integration of the businesses, establishing a unified company and achieving synergy targets well ahead of schedule. During Simon’s tenure, he worked closely with public sector leaders to deploy disruptive digital technologies like artificial intelligence and the internet of things to transform government operations and power superior citizen experiences.
Before Superion, Simon led and grew the new global business units focused on digital solutions at Verint, a public global billion-dollar provider of software for customer engagement and cybersecurity. The digital business units, assembled through multiple acquisitions over a 5-year period, established new sources of growth beyond the slowing core business in areas like digital engagement, identify analytics, social communities, and digital feedback management. In this role, Simon worked with leading global companies on how to leverage these technologies to transform the customer engagement from traditional face-to-face and phone interactions to more profitable digital engagements. During Simon’s time at Verint the market capitalization of the company doubled in size.
Prior to Verint, Simon was a serial entrepreneur, starting, leading, and growing innovative software companies in areas such as cloud computing, video analytics, and workforce optimization, the last of which he sold to Verint in 2011.
Simon is a native of England and has lived in the United States for over 20 years. He has a BSc. in General Management from Boston College.
A History of Transforming Analog to Digital
Generating $30 million in taxes by transforming tax assessment
Simon led the acquisition and growth of a property tax platform that took the antiquated tax assessment process in Vancouver, BC and made it into a data-driven software that maximized tax revenue for the city. Vancouver had a 1% vacancy rate on rentals and sky-high property prices. While living in the city was unaffordable, many empty homes were simply purchased by investors who kept them locked up. The team and software worked with the city to design a tech-enabled process for identifying, auditing, and billing taxes for these empty homes. The results were dramatic: up to 25,000 empty properties came back on the rental market and new tax generated $30MM in revenue for Vancouver.
Saving 125,000 lives by using technology to connect 911 dispatch centers
Simon started the creation of a nationwide virtual 911 network that has the potential to cut response time in emergencies and save 125,000 lives. An estimated 240 million 911 calls are made across America each year. At the end of each call is a citizen seeking immediate, life-saving help. However, the calls come in to over 8,900 different primary and secondary dispatch centers. The centers typically use archaic ways to connect with each other; oftentimes, simply relying on picking up the phone and calling another dispatch center that may be closer to the emergency. Simon led the efforts to use modern APIs and connect these disjointed dispatch centers. The efforts will cut emergency response time by up to 2 minutes per incident and save nearly 125,000 lives nationwide.
Using data science to cut reporting time by 75%
Each local government spends two months preparing a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR). Using data science, Simon’s team built a solution that automatically looks through all the data and generates the CAFR report. Simon’s customers, such as, Salt Lake City, among many others, cut time needed to create the report from two months to two weeks.
Smartly managing physical assets using specialized asset management software and saving $30 million
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gave American infrastructure a D+ rating. Even more concerning is that in an age of stretched local government budgets, communities will have to invest another $4.6 trillion by 2025 just to get their roads, bridges and drinking water supplies to a B+ rating. All this leads to citizens suffering personally as dilapidated infrastructure robs them of $3,400 every year in disposable income. Simon led the acquisition and growth of an Enterprise Asset Management software that smartly inventories all roads, bridges, water pipes etc. in a city. The software then manages all maintenance related to these physical assets and can use predictive models to pre-emptively recommend repairs that maximize the asset’s lifespan. Hundreds of cities have benefited using this transformation. Including, Volusia County, where operational efficiencies, supported by this software, have saved the County $30 million since 2008.
Using technology to reduce false alarms
98% of alarms are false alarms. These alarms divert valuable resources from real emergencies. Simon led the acquisition and growth of a software that automatically processes and sends false alarm notices and fines. The result was a reduction in false alarms and an increase in officer time spent on crime prevention, leading to safer communities. For example, Los Angeles saw a decline in false-alarm response by almost 60 percent – from 102,532 in 2003 to 41,848 in 2011. Similarly, Atlanta will recoup the equivalent of 8 to 12 full-time officers by eliminating time wasted in responding to false alarms.