Talk:Mark Gillett

Mark Gillett
Occupation(s)	Corporate Vice President, Skype Division at Microsoft

Found on the web

Gillett is shown as a reviewer of, and quoted in Jeff Sutherland (founder of Scrum)’s book on Scrum - ‘A Scrum Book’ https://pragprog.com/book/jcscrum/a-scrum-book — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.193.158.133 (talk) 10:45, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Gillett has been quoted several times since joining Silver Lake in

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-m-cohn/how-to-pick-ceos-when-you_b_10362104.html https://www.strategy-business.com/blog/Strategy-Talk-Can-Strategy-Be-Decisive-and-Flexible discussing stated versus working choices in strategic planning. http://albu-strategymanagement.com/2018/04/is-strategy-restrictive/

https://www.russellreynolds.com/en/insights/reports-surveys/dispelling-common-ceo-myths-six-lessons-for-private-equity-leaders-and-portfolio-company-ceos — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.25.114.29 (talk) 01:19, 27 January 2024 (UTC)

Gillett's role in turning around Skype was discussed in a 2016 discussion on 'Acquired' http://www.acquired.fm/episodes/2016/11/1/episode-24-skype — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.187.19.162 (talk) 21:50, 16 December 2016 (UTC)

Gillett was quoted in 2013 by the BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-23862352 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.209.238.160 (talk) 05:27, 3 November 2018 (UTC)

The site ‘The IT Risk Manager’ has several articles describing Gillett’s management style and approach at Skype.

https://theitriskmanager.com/2016/05/30/iirmfw-execs-business-value/

https://theitriskmanager.com/2018/07/01/executives-and-transparency/https://theitriskmanager.com/2019/02/

https://theitriskmanager.com/2016/12/30/why-building-the-wrong-thing-is-so-so-easy/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.221.114.149 (talk) 03:44, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

He was also quoted in an article on CEOs by the head hunters Russel Reynolds https://www.russellreynolds.com/en/Insights/thought-leadership/Documents/Dispelling%20Common%20CEO%20Myths%20Six%20Lessons%20for%20Private%20Equity%20Leaders%20and%20Portfolio%20Company%20CEOs.pdf — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:387:6:80F:0:0:0:67 (talk) 04:15, 26 April 2019 (UTC)

Quorum Software ?

It looks like he was a Director at Quorum Software: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/13/pr-newswire-silver-lake-announces-sale-of-quorum-software.html https://www.pehub.com/2018/08/silver-lake-sells-quorum-software-to-thoma-bravo/ who just got sold

New company he’s working with?

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180104005157/en/WP-Engine-Secures-Strategic-Growth-Investment-Silver

Is this the same guy?

https://www.fastcompany.com/63980/second-opinion

https://www.championscott.com/mark-gillett-appointed-director-value-creation-at-silver-lake/

New Material

Have been doing some digging about what Gillett did before joining Skype:

Gillett was quoted about Skype's early integration into Microsoft (http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/skype-what-kind-of-infrastructure-changes-has-microsoft-made/12612)

Gillett worked on the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy as some kind of technical specialist (http://bankrupt.com/misc/LehmanEur_TransitionSvcsDeal.pdf)

In 2007, while at Alvarez & Marsal, Gillett worked on the IT Infrastructure Library (http://www.itil-officialsite.com/Publications/ITIL2007Acknowledgements.aspx); he also wrote on Intellectual Property Taxation (http://www.alvarezandmarsal.com/intellectual-property-planning-and-tax-efficiency-7) and was appointed as a recovery specialist to lead product and Program management at iSOFT plc (http://www.investegate.co.uk/ArticlePrint.aspx?id=200612110701185876N and http://bankrupt.com%2Fmisc%2Finterim_report_2007.pdf&ei=t1aNUZS8JdS5hAe4u4GYCQ&usg=AFQjCNEpzn-3tT8oE4y7IO13JhUufjXbVQ&sig2=m0RBWlASTMvQW2HgMqnHPw)

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He was referred to in the Skype S1 filing with the US SEC (http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1498209/000119312511096544/ds1a.htm)

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At the PEI Operating Partners conference in 2012 (http://www.peimedia.com/Product.aspx?cID=&pID=241807&contType=2) presented on the approach taken to re-organizing Skype, and was unusually candid for a Private Equity executive, some quotes from his presentation included:

"Skype, like many other companies undergoing significant change or growth, needed to change some of the things that had previously made it successful in order to get to the next level. At Skype we have a talented team of engineers passionate about the brand and user community. With renewed vision, a clear strategy in place we were able to simultaneously focus on solving many of the hard problems in the business and invest in core product development, design and engineering to accelerate growth and attract world class talent and leadership across the organization."

Unusually for a private equity transaction, he described operating changes which included changes to product strategy and to the actual Skype products and technology:

"A key part of our plan for Skype was to enable the product to be deployed ubiquitously across mobile and the web as well as desktop computers, significantly expanding the market - the technology changes that the team made and continues to invest in were a critical component of products for the future and accelerating the business."

He talked about the need for continued commitment to a change process and that executing change in a large company can take significant time and commitment by both the financial sponsor and the management team.

"With strong leadership and a clear plan, significant change can often be started quickly, but large scale transformation in our industry typically require some combination of a world class talent, changes in organization, process and product and can take time to deliver the full benefit. Each element re-enforces the others as people enact change attracting more strong people internally and externally to the mission and building momentum. It's been a privilege to be able to continue to see through the change that we put in place through at Skype and into Microsoft where we have been able to continue to lead the team and to grow and expand the product, user base and business."

He left Skype/Microsoft

http://allthingsd.com/20131028/top-skype-exec-mark-gillett-departs-microsoft/ Someone with good English, please update an article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.122.18.161 (talk) 11:03, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

Book ??

Gillett authored a chapter of a book published by PEI Media (?) called 'The Operating Patner in Private Equity' (sic) which appears to describe the approach that he took to transforming Skype (and perhaps previous other companies? - his examples aren't named). Perhaps worth adding. It looks like this was published after he returned to Silver Lake, but it's impossible to tell whether this was written while he was at Silver Lake or at Microsoft. Perhaps this approach has been used at other Silver Lake companies? Perhaps people can find out and we can update the article to reflect?