Austin-based private equity giant Vista Equity Partners named a new operating managing director and expanded its independent board program.
The new operating managing director of Vista's Flagship Fund is Thomas E. Hogan, a former HP VP of sales and marketing and former CEO and chairman of Kony, which was acquired by Swiss banking software company Temenos. Hogan is also a board member of Florida-based software company Citrix Systems and a former advisory board member of Austin-based AI company CognitiveScale.
Vista's Flagship Fund invests in middle-market and high-value software and data companies. The firm, which closed on a $16 billion fund in 2019, invested $7.3 billion across 52 deals in 2020.
Vista also announced 20 new board members for its 55-person independent board, which helps portfolio companies reach growth goals, as well as 17 senior employee promotions, including the appointment of Rod Alibadi as managing director of the Flagship Fund.
The moves follow news last November that Brian Sheth, Vista's president, had exited the firm, as well as Vista's founder, chairman and CEO, Robert Smith, reaching a $140M settlement with the Department of Justice tied to offshore accounts.
Vista, founded in 2000, is one of the most successful and best known private equity firms focused on software. It has more than $73 billion in assets under management. While its headquarters is in downtown Austin at the Frost Bank Tower, it maintains offices in Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Oakland.
The firm is led by Smith, a former Wall Street investment banker who is regarded as the richest Black man in America. David A. Breach, who is also Austin-based, is the firm's chief operating and legal officer.
While Vista conducts deals globally, it also has investments in Austin. One of its most recent local moves came at the end of January when Social Solutions, an Austin-based portfolio company of Vista, acquired Canadian case management software startup Athena Software. Also in January, Vista provided additional funding to Austin-based customer engagement company Khoros, which was created when Austin's Spredfast merged with Lithium.
