Blog

Forterro Structures for Accelerated Growth in Europe

London, UK, February 23, 2022

ERP Software Provider Announces Regional Organisation Design and Appoints Industry Veterans to Lead Northern, Western and Central Europe

Forterro, a European provider of ERP software solutions to more than 10,000 midmarket manufacturing and production companies, today announced a regionally oriented organisation design that will oversee its eleven localised European ERP product brands. The group has invested in the appointment of three industry veterans, who will serve in the role of president for each region (Northern, Western, and Central Europe), reporting to CEO Dean Forbes.

“Our business houses specialised ERP product lines, led by in-country teams who understand local context and invest in being close to the customer,” said Dean Forbes, CEO Forterro. “With this change, we’ll continue to honour our principle of each brand being local, whilst giving each region the power to accelerate growth through access to exceptional talent, strategic skillsets, and the resources and governance possibilities offered by the scale of the full Forterro organisation.”

Appointed to the role of regional presidents are Richard Furby for Northern Europe (Nordics and UK), David Coste for Forterro Western Europe (French speaking countries as well as Spain and Italy), and Marcus Pannier for Central Europe (DACH, Poland and Eastern European countries).

Furby previously oversaw and significantly grew Forterro’s abas ERP product line, a role he will now hand over to Pannier. Furby will act in a dual role moving forward, serving as president of M&A for the group, as well as overseeing Forterro’s Jeeves, Garp, and 123insight products as President of Forterro Northern Europe.

Coste currently leads Forterro’s Sylob, Clipper, ProConcept, Helios and Silog ERP products and will continue to do so as President of Forterro Western Europe.

Pannier comes to Forterro from ERP vendor IFS. When Pannier officially joins Forterro on March 1, he will be responsible for overseeing the abas, myfactory, and BPSC product brands as President of Central Europe.

The local management teams operating each of Forterro’s products remain in place, with their responsibilities changing very little, if at all. As each of Forterro’s ERP product lines is fortified with group- and region-level capital, customers will continue to enjoy local service, powered by global resources.

Richard Furby Hands the Reins of abas Software GmbH to Marcus Pannier

On March 1, Marcus Pannier will join Forterro as President of Forterro Central Europe and managing director of abas Software GmbH. Pannier brings with him a broad range of experience in the software industry—in particular the ERP market. Most recently, Pannier was the managing director for the software provider IFS in the DACH region. Before that, he held various executive management positions at large software companies, including Informatica and SAP, as well as at startup companies such as Heiler Software.

Pannier is anxious to get started. “Customer proximity is an extremely important factor for me, and Forterro’s strategy is founded on this guiding principle,” he said. “It was an easy career decision to join Forterro and abas, and I am looking forward to working with the exceptional team of industry, development and delivery experts we have already assembled here in the DACH region to find even better ways to serve our clients.”

Furby welcomes Pannier to abas, and looks forward to his new roles within Forterro. “It has been a great privelage to be part of the abas team for the past several years, and an honour to lead abas’ integration into Forterro. Even though I am stepping back from day-to-day operations, I leave the abas product line in extremely capable hands, and I will continue support its continued success in my corporate role. I am, and will always remain, an abas fan.”

ABOUT FORTERRO

Forterro is a partner to more than 10,000 European midmarket manufacturing companies. Since it was founded in 2012, Forterro has quietly grown to become one of the leading software providers in Europe, with strongholds in each of the continent’s top production economies, as well as regional service hubs and development centres around the world. Headquartered in London and backed by the investment of Battery Ventures, Forterro is home to a diverse range of local and vertical industry software solutions—each one uniquely developed by the midmarket, for the midmarket. For more information, visit www.forterro.com.