GUY & SUE HADDLETON
2019 North Harbour Business Hall of Fame Laureates
Takapuna based couple, Guy and Susan Haddleton, have been described as ‘serial entrepreneurs’, selling their first start-up business in their mid-40s for US$160 million.
A Kings College Old Boy, Guy spent his early career in the New Zealand military as a Troop Commander of a Special Forces team. He holds an MBA from the University of Otago. While Susan is a graduate of the University of Auckland and forged a career as a regional manager for Drake International in both Canada and the Eastern Seaboard of the USA before receiving a call from Guy telling her of his great business idea!
In 1990, the Haddletons established Adaytum, an enterprise planning software company. Adaytum began in the UK, with an initial investment of 49 pounds (the cost of an advertisement in the Financial Times) before later conquering the US market and moving to Minneapolis. They led Adaytum for 13 years until its acquisition by Cognos in 2003 for US$160 million.
Later Guy, Sue and Michael saw an opportunity within cloud-based planning software and co-founded Anaplan, an adapted version of Adaytum built this time for the age of the Internet. At one point Anaplan was one of the fastest growing enterprise software companies in the US., In October 2018, Anaplan listed on the New York Stock Exchange in a $3 billion-dollar IPO.
The Haddletons are keen investors and supporters of entrepreneurial, start-ups. They were early investors in Xero with Rod Drury, where Guy also served on the board for four years, and have recently invested in medical cannabis start-up, Helius Therapeutics, and supercomputing start-up Nyriad here in New Zealand.
In addition to their outstanding business history, Guy and Susan are passionate about youth and the arts and are generous supporters of organisations like the New Zealand National Youth Theatre, where they are sponsors and help some of their stars go offshore. They also support the New Zealand Opera School and the New Zealand Outward Bound Trust, amongst numerous other organisations and individuals.
Their outstanding business record, leading and cutting edge ideas, and fantastic support of the youth and arts in New Zealand undoubtedly make Guy and Sue Haddleton very worthy Laureates of the North Harbour Business Hall of Fame.
