Disclosure statement – Updated May 13th, 2013: As a specialist on Cloud Computing and software as a service (SaaS), 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:
- Ben is a mentor on a number of accelerator programs including TechStars Cloud, LightningLab and Acceleprise
- Ben is an adviser to and investor in HybridCluster
- Ben is an adviser to and investor in Appsecute
- Ben is an adviser to and investor in Tylr Mobile
- Ben is an adviser to Cloud66
- Ben is an investor in Publons
- Ben is an investor and director of Connect2Field - Connect2Field is 30% owned by Reckon (an ASX listed provider of business and accounting practice software)
- Ben is a non-executive director of RIS Group, a NZAX listed company
- Ben is co-founder of LiveMigrate
- Ben is an adviser to and investor in Cloudability
- Ben is an adviser adviser to and invester in Learning Source
- Diversity is a shareholder in and Ben is a director of Cactus Climbing
- Ben is a shareholder in and a director of a number of private and not for profit organizations (any conflicts between these and my writing will be disclosed)
Previous advisory roles and investments:
- 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
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 organized the Cloud2020 Summit, sponsored by a variety of vendors
- Ben has consulted to the OpenStack foundation
- Ben has consulted to BMC Software
- Ben has consulted to The Commonwealth Bank of Australia
- Ben has consulted to salesforce.com
- Ben has been an adviser to the defrag conference and Glue conference
- Ben formerly curated the CloudU educational program for Rackspace
- Ben was invited and remunerated for hosting an IT manager lunch for IBM New Zealand
- Ben has been engaged to run a CIO roundtable for IBM New Zealand
- Diversity has consulted to Telecom New Zealand
- Ben consulted to VentureBeat on the agenda for the CloudBeat conference 2011 and 2012
- Ben was an adviser to Focus.com
- Ben has consulted to SITA
- Ben has consulted to MYOB
- bizchat – Ben was co-founder of bizchat, a community site for small and medium businesses in New Zealand. Bizchat is a not for profit but obtained start-up sponsorship from Telecom New Zealand
- Ben has contracted to designindustry as a design strategist
- Ben has advised LeftClick
- Intuit – Diversity has worked with Intuit and the Intuit Partner Platform
- Diversity has consulted to Xero
- Ben has consulted to Environment Waikato
- Mindtouch – Diversity has written a whitepaper supported by Mindtouch
- Zuora – Diversity has consulted to Zuora
- Dell Inc has provided some sample hardware for Ben to trial on a long-term basis
- Hewlett Packard has provided some sample hardware for Ben to trial on a long-term basis
- Telecom New Zealand has provided some sample hardware for Ben to trial on a long-term basis
- Toshiba has provided some sample hardware for Ben to trial on a long-term basis
- Zuora, Aria, Monexa and Vindicia supported the creation of a Diversity Analysis whitepaper
- Intacct supported the writing of a Diversity Analysis whitepaper
- Rackspace supported the writing of some Diversity Analysis whitepapers
- Ben has written case studies and spoken at an APAC presentation for NetSuite
- Ben was co-editor of CloudAve – CloudAve was sponsored by Zoho
- Diversity has consulted to Zendesk
- Ben curated the Business Insight website for IBM New Zealand
- Box.net was a Diversity Analysis client
- Ben was a contributor to the Distracted Enterprise site which is sponsored by Mainsoft
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. For the purposes of clarity however, where product or benefits exceed USD200, these will be disclosed also.
Ben is always interested in talking to organisations that could utilise his skills and experience – contact is welcome;
E ben@diversity.net.nz | M 021 2384136
skype ben_kepes | twitter | LinkedIn listing
