LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb 12, 2025--
Spendesk, the leading spend management and procurement platform for mid-market companies, announces the appointment of Alfonso Marone as Executive Chairman of the Board. This strategic governance change underscores Spendesk’s commitment to driving innovation for customers and profitable growth in 2025.
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Alfonso Marone brings nearly 30 years of global experience in strategic leadership, business innovation, and corporate development. A former KPMG UK Equity Partner, Marone is the founder of London-based advisory firm Point79 and a graduate of INSEAD, holding both an MBA and Corporate Governance qualifications. Over the course of his executive and advisory career, he has worked with Fortune 50 and FTSE 250 organisations, including Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC (now Delinian), NBCUniversal, and O2, as well as top-tier investment firms, focusing on B2B technology, data, analytics, and the information sector.
Marone’s appointment comes at a pivotal time, as Spendesk invests heavily in procurement software solutions and prepares to launch a suite of new AI-enhanced capabilities. His appointment strengthens Spendesk’s leadership team by splitting the roles of Founder, Chair, and CEO among three complementary leaders.
“This new structure enables us to harness the visionary leadership of Founder Rodolphe Ardant, the operational expertise of CEO Axel Demazy, and my strategic oversight to enhance governance and drive attractive value for Spendesk,” said Marone. “I have really enjoyed partnering with Rodolphe and Axel over the past few months, and I am honoured to officially join Spendesk’s Board as Executive Chairman. The company’s work in building the first procure-to-pay platform for mid-market companies in the UK and Europe is truly inspiring.”
Since beginning his collaboration with Spendesk, Marone has focused on developing and overseeing a comprehensive value creation plan with a clear path to profitability in 2025. In his role, Marone chairs the Board of Directors, acting as a critical link between shareholders – including General Atlantic, Index, Eight Roads, Hexa, and Tiger Global – and the executive team. Additionally, he collaborates closely with the Founder to foster innovation in Office-of-the-CFO solutions, drive strategic partnerships, and steer the company toward a path of expansion, value creation, and eventual liquidity for its shareholders.
Axel Demazy, CEO of Spendesk, expressed his enthusiasm: “Alfonso’s leadership brings a fresh perspective and a unique ability to align our shareholders and executive team. His guidance marks a significant step in enhancing governance and unlocking value for both customers and stakeholders.”
About Spendesk
Spendesk is the leading spend management and procurement platform that transforms company spending. By simplifying procurement, payment cards, expense management, invoice processing, and accounting automation, Spendesk sets the new standard for spending at work. Its single, intelligent solution makes efficient spending easy for employees and gives finance leaders the full visibility and control they need across all company spend, even in multi-entity structures. Trusted by thousands of companies, Spendesk supports over 200,000 users across brands such as SoundCloud, Gousto, SumUp, and Bloom & Wild. With offices in London, Paris, Berlin, and Madrid, Spendesk also puts community at the heart of its mission. CFO Connect, backed by Spendesk, is the largest European network of finance leaders, with more than 12,000 members.
For more information, visit: https://www.spendesk.com/en/press/
Alfonso Marone. (Photo: Business Wire)
The Oregon man who fatally shot a teenage gunman to end a deadly rampage at an elementary school last week says he was the children's “last line of defense” and that he regrets not arriving soon enough to save them all.
Kaylub Giamanco, whose two daughters attend Silver Rail Elementary, where the Oct. 15 attack occurred, said he feels like he failed the families of those who died.
“I want to apologize for not saving their babies, that’s probably the biggest thing for me right now,” Giamanco told Oregon Public Broadcasting in an interview published Friday. “The gratitude for saving people’s children is awesome. But there were ones that I didn’t save.”
Three children — ages 5, 8 and 11 — and a teacher were killed at the school in Bend, Oregon, last week when a former student there, 16-year-old Griffin J. John II, blasted his way through locked doors with a shotgun and attacked a special needs classroom. Another student was critically injured and a teacher was injured and hospitalized.
Police say another teacher threw her phone at the attacker and wrestled with him before Giamanco shot and killed him after following the gunman into the building.
Giamanco said he dropped off his daughters at the school that morning before driving to work. A few hours later, the 36-year-old carpenter was passing the school again as he was heading home for lunch.
He said he spotted someone wearing black and carrying a long gun fire shots into a pickup truck and at a person mowing the school's lawn before the shooter climbed a fence and headed toward the school building.
Giamanco said “panic fled into my brain.” He grabbed a .40-caliber handgun from his truck's center console and went after the gunman as he dialed 911. He asked the dispatcher to send help before hanging up his phone.
“I said 'I’m sorry I have to go in. People are going to die,'” Giamanco said in the interview.
As he got closer to the building, Giamanco said, he lay on his stomach and used his elbows to crawl across the ground.
“That’s when I started hearing children pleading for their lives,” he said. “And then I started hearing gunfire and I just started army crawling faster and faster. And I told myself: 'This is probably the last thing that I’m ever going to do.'”
Giamanco said he entered the school through a window that had been shot out. Peeking into a nearby classroom, he saw a teacher grappling with the shooter. He said he faced them both in profile, giving him an open shot.
“I felt like I was the last line of defense between him and the rest of the children,” Giamanco said.
He swung the door open, stepped into the room and fired his gun.
Both the gunman and the teacher dropped to the floor. The teacher bolted from the room as the shooter reached for his shotgun.
“He was scrambling for his weapon,” Giamanco said. “I looked at him and I shot him two more times to make sure that he couldn’t move, because I was afraid of him shooting anybody else.”
Police have said Giamanco was carrying his gun legally in his truck and have credited him and the unarmed teacher who confronted the gunman with saving lives. A day after the shootings, President Donald Trump said that Giamanco was a “great hero” who “took care of business.”
A second teacher in the classroom, Becky Drury, said in a statement Wednesday that she lay on the floor, helplessly playing dead, after being struck at close range by a shotgun blast that nearly severed her left hand.
The teacher who struggled with the shooter hasn't been publicly identified. Giamanco told the public broadcaster that she's “a real true hero” whose actions gave him an opening to kill the attacker.
“I can’t tell you what it feels like to take a life … but I can tell you that I genuinely feel like I was supposed to be there,” Giamanco said. “If I wasn’t there, I just don’t know what would have happened.”
Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia.
Children place flowers at a makeshift memorial outside Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, Ore., Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, a day after a deadly shooting. (AP Photo/Joe Kline)
Police tape is placed outside Silver Rail Elementary school, where a shooting took place, on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026 in Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Joe Kline)
