Europe and TMT practice in the Asia-Pacific region. Mr. Sama co-founded Baer Capital Partners, an alternative asset management firm focused on India with over $300 million in assets, in partnership with the Baer family and Dubai Holdings. He continues to be a Director of Baer Capital. He is a member of the CNBC Global CFO Council, and a former Chairman of the London Chapter of the Young President’s Organization (YPO).
Kevin Turner is a director nominee. Mr. Turner is a highly unique CEO and executive who has served and excelled at two of the most admired companies in the world, Walmart and Microsoft. Since 2018, Mr. Turner has served as President and CEO of Core Scientific, the largest Blockchain hosting company in the U.S. As Microsoft’s former Chief Operating Officer from 2005 to 2016, Mr. Turner led the company’s global sales, marketing and services organization of 70,000+ employees in more than 190 countries through the transition of Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and Satya Nadella all while serving as COO. Under Mr. Turner’s leadership, the sales and marketing group delivered more than $91.9 billion in revenue in fiscal 2016. Mr. Turner oversaw worldwide sales, field marketing, services, support, and partner channels, as well as Microsoft Stores and corporate support functions, including Information Technology, Worldwide Licensing & Pricing, and Operations. Mr. Turner spent nearly 20 years at Wal-Mart Stores, where he rose through the ranks and was named the youngest corporate officer ever at Wal-Mart at age 29. Mr. Turner held various leadership positions at Wal-Mart, including becoming the Chief Information Officer for Wal-Mart Stores, and as his last assignment he served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of SAM’S CLUB, a $37 billion division of Wal-Mart Stores. He was appointed Chairman of Zayo Group in 2020 and Vice Chairman of the Board for Albertsons Companies, receiving his first appointment with the company in 2017. He served as a Board Director for Nordstrom from 2010 to 2020, and Vice Chairman of Citadel and CEO of Citadel Securities from 2016 to 2017.
Leadership Council and Senior Advisory Team
Our Leadership Council includes individuals with a track record of success that positions them to add value to potential partner companies, advise our management team and board, and bring unique insights and connectivity around deal sourcing and diligence. This team, with 17% sponsorship of the at-risk capital (assuming no exercise of the underwriter’s over-allotment option), is comprised of a diverse set of leaders, including the former CEO of Ericsson, a former Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama, a former CEO of Young & Rubicam, prominent Venture Capitalists, current public company CEOs, and C-level executives at blue chip public companies.
Our Senior Advisory Team is comprised of individuals with an array of diverse and relevant experience, including unicorn founders, public company CEOs, and industry leaders in technology. These individuals are not investors in our SPAC, but they are eligible for our performance bonus of interests in our sponsor that are equivalent to an aggregate of up to 500,000 founder shares. These individuals serve in ad-hoc roles and add value to Plum through the strength of their connectivity with relevant company executives and boards.
Overall, members of our extended team are current CEOs, Board Members, Advisors, or Investors at companies such as Datto, Gusto, Grammarly, ThoughtSpot, Teneo, Databricks, Fastly, Rubrik, Even, Waystar, Builder.ai, Wyze, MapBox, Side, GitLab, Hashicorp, Folloze, ShotSpotter, ThredUp, Core Scientific, Lucid, Pendo, Outreach, Digital Ocean, Illumio, Notion, Punchh, LiveRamp, SmartNews, True, DeepInstinct, Crunchbase, Nutanix, SQream, Auth0, Calm, Zayo, SmartSheet, Cybereason, NerdWallet, Uber, Softcat, ZeroFox, HIS, Advanced Computer Software, etc.
Our team members are also current Partners, Advisors, or LPs at firms such as Bessemer, Durable, IVP, DST, Wing Ventures, TPG, Akkadian, Warburg Pincus, Trinity Ventures, Cross Creek, Cadian, HWVP, Twenty Acer, Gagarin, Raine, Hutt Capital, Rothschild, Elderstreet, NEA, Highland,