Jason Magee is leaving ConnectWise after almost six years in the top job at the company where he succeeded the founder and visionary leader Arnie Bellini. But Magee was no newbie at ConnectWise when he started as CEO. He joined ConnectWise 13 years ago and served in several roles before he was selected to run the whole thing.
Previous roles included president, chief operating officer, executive VP of strategy and acquisitions, VP of worldwide channels and alliances, VP of worldwide channel sales and director of worldwide channel. Before he even started as CEO, he played an integral part in the success of ConnectWise.
In his earlier roles he oversaw acquisitions including ScreenConnect, the IT Nation Evolve peer groups (previously HTG Peer Groups), the Sienna Group (for MSSP services) and ConnectWise’s investment in Perch Security.
When he ascended to the CEO job nearly six years ago, here’s what he told ChannelE2E about his management style versus Arnie Bellini’s:
“I’m not Arnie. But we share similar thoughts. I just work through those thoughts a little more methodically. It’s like understanding the difference between Captain Kirk and Picard. Arnie is more like Kirk. I’m more like Picard.” It remains to be seen which Starfleet commander Manny Rivelo will be, but we’ll stay on top of that and report back. Meanwhile, here’s a look at seven big accomplishments from Jason Magee’s tenure as CEO of ConnectWise.
- “Tremendous” growth on the bottom and top line. We asked Magee for the three things he was most proud of, and this one was at the top of the list. ConnectWise reported that the company’s revenue increased by over 300% during his tenure as the company’s top leader and profitability increased by 500%. Those increases were driven by strategic acquisitions in cybersecurity and data protection.
- The second accomplishment Magee cited is the company’s mission and vision. “Arnie and the rest of the founders put it in place, and we’ve taken it to a whole new level,” Magee said.
- The third is no surprise: Community. ConnectWise is known for its strong community, which some MSPs have told me is even more important than the technology. ConnectWise’s IT Nation Evolve peer groups, its Service Leadership Group and even the independent social media communities that have sprouted from the company over the years are all part of what is possibly the largest community of MSPs that exists today. Community continues to be ConnectWise’s superpower.
- Managing the company through the pandemic. It's easy to forget what a challenging time we're all weathering, but the pandemic required quick thinking and response to a novel event that had repercussions across the entire economy, how everyone worked and how we all secure our IT estates.
- Don’t overlook the Asio platform. ConnectWise introduced the Asio cloud-based MSP platform in November 2021 as a unified IT management system designed specifically for managed service providers. While it’s still in development, the platform has progressed since its introduction and incoming CEO Rivelo has pledged to complete the job.
- To further develop the Asio platform, ConnectWise assembled a team of executives, including Raghu Ram Bongula, who joined as CTO in October 2022, Ameer Karim, who joined as Executive VP and GM of unified monitoring and management in 2022 and who now serves as EVP and GM of cybersecurity and data protection, and Patrick Beggs who joined as CISO in February 2022.
- Finally, Magee’s era as CEO included a number of notable acquisitions, including, most recently, Axcient and SkyKick in the backup and disaster recovery category. Others are Service Leadership in February 2021, Continuum in October 2019, IT Boost in October 2019, SmileBack in December 2021 and Wise-Sync in August 2022.
Magee is staying in place for a few months to help in the transition and will be at IT Nation Connect in Orlando, Florida, November 6-8.
