26. Peter Bauer
Mimecast Co-Founder and CEO – 2003-Jan 2024
The youngest of the 30 leaders in this list at aged 50, Mimecast co-founder Peter Bauer led the British-born email management vendor for 21 years before announcing his retirement in January 2024.
Having opted not to attend university, Bauer founded Mimecast in London in 2003 with fellow South African Neil Murray. Today it claims to have 42,000 global customers.
Stepping back into a board member role will enable Bauer to “spend more time to spend on personal projects and passions, to be spontaneous, and to connect more with friends and family”, he wrote.
Leadership style
According to some of the channel leaders who nominated him, Bauer was able to foster a family-like culture at Mimecast, and is respected for his personal touch and value-driven approach to leading.
Low points
Mimecast’s shares took a hit in 2021 when it was breached in the aftermath of the SolarWinds attacks of late 2020. Its decision to spurn its UK roots and list on the NASDAQ in 2015 (it is now private equity backed) may also have disappointed some.
Killer quote
“I like learning, but I didn’t like the classroom style of learning. I struggled with that.” (see interview here)
What our panellists said about Bauer
Colin Brown, Non-Executive Director, Advania UK
“Of all the global leaders I’ve experienced over my career, Peter Bauer stands out to me for his personal touch, his value-driven approach to leading, and his focus on identifying and honing his organisation’s ‘what are we going to be famous for?’. In Mimecast’s case this was email security and he ensured the company developed products that were easy to understand and implement and, as a partner, easy to sell. The personal time and focus he put into the success of the Mimecast/Softcat relationship was incredible (how did he find time to do anything else?) and as the company grew I could see that he recruited individuals that shared his sense of purpose and values and delegated brilliantly. A supreme example of not just leadership, but followership too.”
Robert Pooley, Solutions Director & Co-Founder, Saepio Information Security
“[I nominated] Peter Bauer for his innovation and dedication to building a global email security provider. His passion for excellent customer experience and ability to nurture a family-like culture was inspirational.”
How did IT Channel Oxygen compile The Century’s Greatest Vendor Leaders? See here
25 leaders were scored higher by our channel panel. See next page for more…
