ConnectWise Leadership Changes Emphasize 'Customer Success' Focus

If you want to know where ConnectWise’s focus is going to be in 2019, take a look at the leadership changes the PSA provider announced Wednesday. The new year will seemingly be all about beefing up its consulting, product and IT Nation efforts under the umbrella of “customer success.”

ConnectWise’s Arnie Bellini

“ConnectWise has always put our customers’ success first, and in 2019 we are doubling down on our efforts to align and invest in the success of our 24,000 worldwide customers,” said Arnie Bellini, ConnectWise CEO. “We’ve put together a formidable team whose leadership, business acumen and channel expertise will certainly drive forward ConnectWise’s position as an industry leader, while making our customers more successful in business and life.”

The company promoted channel veteran Jason Magee, who took the role as executive vice president and chief operating officer in 2016, to president and COO. Magee led ConnectWise’s worldwide channels and alliances prior to his COO role. As COO, Magee led corporate strategy, operations and procurement efforts. With this promotion, he’ll also oversee the product, customer success and IT Nation teams.

Chief product officer Craig Fulton has moved into the newly created role of chief customer success officer. 2019 will see him building out a new customer success team built on the foundations of ConnectWise’s current support, consulting and on-boarding teams. Bellini said the new position was created in direct response to partner feedback.

And the changes keep on coming. Current vice president of ecosystem Jeff Bishop will step into Fulton’s shoes as chief product officer, leveraging his experience as one of the founders of ConnectWise Control, a remote support tool, to oversee product development and management, platform infrastructure and ecosystem technology.

Finally, longtime ConnectWiser Kathy Smith, senior vice president of services and education, is headed toward retirement this year and stepping into an advisory role. Smith spent her time at ConnectWise building a large consultative practice that provides online education, training, implementation assistance and one-on-one consulting, as well as ConnectWise’s partner support team.

“Kathy has been a trusted leader and mentor at ConnectWise for 10 years, and I credit her and her team with the incredibly high customer satisfaction ratings we receive from our partners — which are consistently well over 90 percent,” said Bellini. “I thank Kathy for her amazing contributions, 110 percent dedication, and love for our partners.”