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Charles Rossotti, Carlyle Senior Advisor and Former IRS Commissioner, Joins Board; Software Exec Gwen Spertell Joins as New CEO
Wednesday February 11, 7:00 am ET
Liquid Engines, Inc., a cash flow and tax management software
company, announced a $9.2 million Series C round of funding led
by The Carlyle Group. The funding will enable Liquid Engines to
expand the company's sales and marketing operations. Additional
investors in this round include Advanced Technology Ventures, Charles
River Ventures, Catamount Ventures, Oak Hill Venture Partners,
and Silicon Valley Bank. Liquid Engines has raised a total of $21
million since the company's founding in March 2000.
Liquid Engines delivers to the CFO's office a high-quality, high-integrity,
low-risk way to manage cash flow and taxes, that is essential to
survive in the post-Sarbanes era and that has been conspicuously
absent until this time. The system provided by Liquid Engines is
a first-of-its-kind, enabling corporations to save time and millions
of dollars by replacing the cumbersome and error-prone practice
of linking hundreds of spreadsheets to analyze and manage cash
and tax effects in corporate transactions. The archaic approach
of using spreadsheets is widely regarded as inefficient, inaccurate
and not up to the scrutiny of financial auditors.
Liquid Engines also announced today that The Carlyle Group's Senior
Advisor, Charles O. Rossotti, has joined the board of directors.
Mr. Rossotti served as Commissioner of Internal Revenue from 1997
to 2002. In 1970, Mr. Rossotti co-founded American Management Systems,
Inc. (AMS), and for 27 years served in a variety of capacities,
including President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of the
Board. AMS grew through his tenure, becoming a major international
business systems consulting and systems integration firm with revenues
of more than $1 billion. Mr. Rossotti's expertise complements Liquid
Engine's existing roster of industry experts, including Nobel Economist
Mike Spence, who serve on the company's board.
Liquid Engines co-founder and chairman Edward Lazear, a Stanford
University economist, said, "I am pleased to welcome Charles
and Gwen to the Liquid Engine's team. Their industry knowledge
and leadership will help take us to the next level of success.
He added, "There are some problems that CFOs and tax executives
face that could not even be conceptualized until Liquid Engines
came along. The complexity of the modern corporation implies that
restructuring can be done in so many ways that only a few possibilities
can be considered and those designs may be far from optimal. Our
technology allows firms to find the structures that best align
tax policy with business goals from among millions of possible
alternatives. The high-powered proprietary algorithms available
to all Liquid Engines customers monitor and report key cash and
tax metrics as they perform the complex analyses."
Mr. Rossotti said, "The Carlyle Group made this investment
and I joined Liquid Engines's board because the company delivers
the most powerful technology for managing the tax affairs of complex
corporations. As the number of legal entities and taxing jurisdictions
involved in a company's business increases, the difficulties of
complying with the law while minimizing taxes becomes extremely
difficult and often inefficient. Liquid Engines has the tools for
managing this important business problem. I look forward to supporting
the executive team to make Liquid Engines the technology company
of choice for corporations seeking to improve the management of
their tax activities."
Included in today's announcement, Liquid Engines has appointed
accomplished enterprise software veteran Gwen Spertell president
and CEO. Ms. Spertell will provide corporate, strategic, and operational
leadership to the organization. Prior to joining Liquid Engines,
Ms. Spertell was president and CEO of Intelligent Results, Inc.
and COO of BackWeb Technologies, Inc. Additionally, Ms. Spertell
spent eight years at Oracle Corporation where she served in senior
management positions in sales, consulting, and alliance development,
with her most recent position as vice president of global ISV alliances.
She was previously president and CEO of Pacific Western Information
Systems, where she served as the key architect for its flagship
product, CompuTrust, a trust accounting application. Ms. Spertell
succeeds Liquid Engines' co-founder Ms. Arti Arora, who will continue
as the company's Chief Technology Officer.
"Liquid Engines possesses breakthrough technology and a dynamic
team of experts propelling it forward," said Ms. Spertell. "We
are supported by the right individuals and funded by the right
investors, giving us the muscle and insight necessary to provide
solutions for key corporate customers. The team's deep technology
and tax experience enables us to aggressively pursue our next stage
of growth."
About The Carlyle Group
The Carlyle Group is a global private equity firm with more than
$17.5 billion under management. Carlyle generates extraordinary
returns for its investors by employing a conservative, proven,
and disciplined approach. Carlyle invests in buyouts, venture,
real estate, high yield, and turnarounds in North America, Europe,
and Asia, focusing on aerospace & defense, automotive, consumer & industrial,
energy & power, healthcare, technology & business services,
telecommunications & media, and transportation. Since 1987,
the firm has invested $10.4 billion of equity in 306 transactions.
The Carlyle Group employs more than 500 people in 12 countries.
Visit www.carlyle.com for additional information.
About Liquid Engines, Inc. 
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