Anthony Abate

Independent Consultant

Anthony M. Abate has been an independent director of Denbury Inc. since September 2020. He currently serves as the Chair of the Audit Committee and is also a member of the Compensation Committee. Mr. Abate has extensive experience in finance, accounting and M&A, having served in various director and executive leadership roles throughout his career.

Mr. Abate also serves as the Executive Chairman of GTT Communications, Inc., one of the industry’s largest global Tier 1 IP networks. Prior to this role, he served as a member of the Special Purpose Committee supporting the company’s financial restructuring. GTT offers a comprehensive set of network services connecting 260 cities on six continents and more than 140 countries, designed for sophisticated enterprise customers requiring secure, high-performance, and scalable networking solutions. Mr. Abate also serves as the lead director and formerly Chairman of Southeastern Grocers, a multi-brand retail grocery store business with $8 billion in revenue. Following a financial restructuring, he assumed the role of Chairman at the request of investors to guide the business towards profitable growth and a successful exit. Previously, Mr. Abate served as an independent director of Tops Markets, BroadView Networks, Looking Glass Networks and CBeyond Communications.

Mr. Abate founded and served as COO and CFO of Echo360, Inc. from 2007 to 2021. Echo360 provides educational technology solutions to the higher education and continuing education markets worldwide. Before Echo360, Mr. Abate served as a private equity general partner, most recently at Battery Ventures where he initiated investments, retained active board responsibilities, raised significant debt and equity capital, and managed exits via initial public offering or strategic sale.  Prior to that, Mr. Abate served as a consultant at McKinsey & Co. where he advised publicly traded companies and venture-backed start-ups on how best to capitalize on the ensuing business opportunities of industry deregulation and Internet convergence.

Mr. Abate is a highly accomplished individual, having graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Duke University.  He holds an MBA, with distinction, from Harvard Business School. He has gained extensive expertise across many industries throughout his professional career, including initiating investments, raising significant debt and equity capital, rapidly growing nascent businesses, and managing accretive investor returns. Mr. Abate began his career in the U.S. Air Force, where he developed an advanced computer platform for the then-classified stealth aircraft program.