Former Iona exec assumes Kalido CEO post

Kalido on Monday appointed a new chief executive and announced that it has gained a round of venture capital funding.

The London-based data warehousing provider claimed that both the funding and the new CEO were part of the original vision when the company was spun off from Shell Group in January of 2001.

Bob Potter takes the helm as CEO, after serving as executive vice president of business operations at Iona Technologies and at a variety of software and IT companies, including nine years at McDonnel Douglass Information Systems, which was spun off and sold to EDS.

Kalido’s founder and former CEO, Andy Hayler, will stay on as chief strategist. 

Hayler explained the change is key to Kalido’s next phase of growth: expanding its presence in the U.S. market.

“That’s something I have no experience at, so the initial plan was to search for a CEO who can do that,” Hayler said.

The company also received a combined total of $18 million in venture capital from Atlas Ventures and Benchmark Capital and intends to use the bulk of the money to fund its efforts in the United States.

“The thing about this startup that isn’t really a startup is that we’re on Version 7 of the software,” Potter said, explaining that the company’s priority is to tap into the United States to win more customers.

That is not to say, however, that the company will cease furthering its software. In fact, Hayler added that Kalido is currently developing Version 8 of its Dynamic Information Warehouse and will bring that incarnation to market in 2004. He added that the company is planning to announce a new product in the third quarter of this year, but declined to provide details.