Michael Marchant VP and General Counsel, Cleversafe

Cleversafe, Inc. announced that Michael Marchant has joined as VP and general counsel.

He joins Cleversafe from Accenture and brings experience in intellectual property and global legal operations.

He will report to John Morris, president and CEO of Cleversafe.

“The addition of a VP and general counsel to our executive team is yet another logical strengthening of the leadership of the company as we grow and scale,” said Morris. “We have been doubling revenues and new customers every year, and having a general counsel helps us across a broad range of legal activities.”

Marchant has legal experience working with start-up companies through to their maturity including advising on licensing, contract negotiations, drafting technology agreements, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, and leading global legal and intellectual property efforts. Most recently, he was director of legal services for Accenture Analytics where he was responsible for legal matters for Accenture’s global analytics and big data practice. During his tenture, he was responsible for IP matters in mergers and acquisitions and joint vetures transactions as well as having managed legal operations for the company’s global brand portfolio valued at over $7.5 billion with trademarks in more than 150 countries. He also completed multiple multi-million dollar deals in the U.S., Asia and Europe. Prior to Accenture, he was legal counsel, head of services and solutions Europe for Dell, UK, at the time one of the fastest growing multi-billion dollar business segments at Dell.

“Cleversafe has some of the most innovative, cutting edge technology in the storage industry. It is years ahead of traditional storage players,” said Marchant. “To have the opportunity to join a leadership team at a company that is transforming an entire industry is what attracted me to Cleversafe.”

Cleversafe’s growth has accelerated in 2013 with numerous new customer engagements around the world and an increasing IP portfolio in support of its dispersed storage technology to 127 US patents awarded. The company closed a $55 million round of equity funding in August, enabling the company to extend its growth, expand into new market segments.