Tom Spengler is now an executive-in-residence for Great Hill.
He brings some two decades of gov tech experience to his new job, which focuses on helping the firm locate potential investments within the industry.
Founded in 1998, Great Hill pursues “high growth” investments of $100 million to $500 million in such sectors as software, digital infrastructure, health care and digital commerce, according to a statement.
“Tom is passionate about improving government and their communities through technology and brings a wealth of acumen and experience,” said Chris Busby, managing director at Great Hill Partners, in the statement. “We look forward to collaborating with Tom in partnering with technology businesses tailored to government end-markets to help them unlock their growth potential and create value for the citizens they serve.”
Spengler worked as founder, chairman and CEO of Granicus from 1999 to 2014.
Great Hill credits him with helping to “create a cloud-based civic engagement and legislative management platform used by more than 6,000 government agencies and 300 million citizens to streamline workflows and establish more meaningful connections with citizens.”
His experience also includes working as a consultant for Accenture, executive chairman for legislative management software seller PrimeGov and CEO for Rock Solid Technologies, another citizen engagement software vendor. Granicus bought Rock Solid a year ago, during Spengler’s tenure as Rock Solid’s CEO. Spengler also serves on the boards of various tech companies.
“I have dedicated my career to helping governments streamline their operations and engage their constituents with an overarching goal of improving local communities,” Spengler said in the statement. “Today, many of our communities are facing new and progressively difficult challenges, and we are eager to begin identifying disruptive companies that are partnering with government agencies to solve these problems.”
Spengler is the second executive-in-residence Great Hill has brought on recently, joining John Wernz, appointed in June to help with wealth management and wealth technologies. Wernz was chief marketing officer for financial planning firm Wealth Enhancement Group.
Editor's note: This article has been updated to clarify that Great Hill's executive-in-residence program includes several members.
