Sage EVP Jennifer Warawa departs company

Jennifer Warawa, a senior leader at Sage who had been with the company for more than a decade, most recently serving as head liaison for accountants and partners of the accounting software provider, has left the company.

Warawa was most recently executive vice president of partners, accountants and alliances for Sage, a role she has held since 2017. Her executive roles prior to that included global vice president of product marketing and, before that, a series of vice president and director positions for Sage North America, where she began working in 2008.

"My career at Sage has exceeded my expectations in every possible way and I am leaving with extremely fond memories, relationships with customers, partners and colleagues that will last a lifetime and with the highest respect for the leaders and strategy that is in place," Warawa wrote in a statement to Accounting Today. "Sage is on a great trajectory and I will be watching with much anticipation the many inevitable successes that lie ahead."

“Jennifer Warawa has decided to leave the business to pursue a fresh challenge outside our industry,” Sage said in an emailed statement. “We are grateful for her efforts leading our partner, accountants and alliances team and wish her all the best.”

Sage stated that Dewey Forrester, vice president for strategic alliances, will take over as interim executive vice president of partners, accountants and alliances as the company recruits for the role. Warawa's last day at the company is Aug. 23.

In addition to presenting at Sage’s annual user conferences and partner summits, Warawa is a thought leader in the profession, speaking at numerous industry events, traveling frequently to meet with partners around the globe, and maintaining an active voice for the community on social media.

During her tenure at Sage, Warawa was also a regular fixture on Accounting Today’s Top 100 Most Influential People list, including last year’s class. She presided over the network of accountants that used Sage's portfolio of accounting software, as well as the value-added resellers of those solutions, and, during that time, oversaw an industry-wide transition in those products from on-premise, legacy systems to more cloud-based solutions.

This customer and industry demand led to Sage Group acquiring cloud accounting provider Intacct in 2017, which also signaled an attempt by the U.K.-based company to gain deeper penetration in the U.S. market. Sage is provided by a majority of the top accounting software value-added resellers and partners in North America ranked on Accounting Today’s annual VAR 100 list.

Last year, Sage CEO Stephen Kelly exited the company and was replaced on an interim basis by CFO Steve Hare, who remains at the helm. Kelly’s exit followed a series of executive departures and reshuffling at the company over the last few years, along with the addition of executives under the Intacct acquisition.