ConnectWise CEO Jason Magee Out, Forcepoint CEO Manny Rivelo Takes Helm

'It has been an incredible honor to lead ConnectWise during this transformative period. I am proud of what our team has accomplished—scaling the business, expanding our product portfolio, and deepening our commitment to our partners,' Magee said in a statement.

ConnectWise CEO Jason Magee is stepping down after five years at the helm of the ITSM juggernaut and just weeks after closing a blockbuster deal that added Axcient and SkyKick to its platform.

Forcepoint CEO Manny Rivelo is taking the helm of Tampa, Fla.-based ConnectWise and will work with Magee in the “upcoming months to ensure a smooth handover,” according to ConnectWise.

“It has been an incredible honor to lead ConnectWise during this transformative period. I am proud of what our team has accomplished—scaling the business, expanding our product portfolio, and deepening our commitment to our partners,” Magee said in a statement. “With a solid foundation now in place, I believe this is the right time for me to step down and hand over the reins to a leader who can guide ConnectWise through its next phase of growth. I look forward to connecting with our MSP partners at IT Nation Connect in November, where we will celebrate our collective achievements.”

Magee announced the news internally to executives on Monday with a briefing for vice presidents at 1 p.m. ET and for other leaders at 2 p.m., CRN has learned. The reason for Magee’s exit was not provided. The exact date that he is planning to leave was also not available.

“He told them that he was leaving. He said he was going to spend more time with his family. He did not say when he was going to leave,” said one sources with knowledge of the briefing.

Replacing Magee will be Rivelo who currently leads Austin, Texas-based Forcepoint, which specializes in network and data protection and cybersecurity. Rivelo spent 15 years at Cisco, four years with F5 Networks and two years at Arista Networks.

He is currently a senior operating partner with global investment firm Francisco Partners, which owns Forcepoint. He is also a seven-year board member of Outdoorsy, a peer-to-peer marketplace for RVs.

“I am thrilled to join ConnectWise at such an exciting time in its journey,” said Rivelo. “Jason has done a phenomenal job positioning ConnectWise as a market leader, and I am eager to build on that success. The rise of AI presents a game-changing opportunity for MSPs and their SMB clients. Through our purpose-built platform and industry-leading community, ConnectWise is equipping MSPs with the tools they need to thrive in an evolving market.”

In a statement, ConnectWise said thanks to Magee the company achieved remarkable milestones, growing its revenue by 300 percent and profitability by 500 percent.

“Since becoming CEO in 2019, Magee has spearheaded the company’s expansion into new markets and the development of cutting-edge solutions for MSPs, all while strengthening ConnectWise’s position as an industry leader in cybersecurity,” the company wrote.

Company insiders say they’re sad to see Magee leave.

“He will be missed. He took this company to the next level and is taking a well-deserved break,” one source inside the company told CRN.

Added another source: “This is huge. The person who leads them has a big impact on the future of the industry. I don’t think it’s crazy to say the industry felt the impact from [the transition from founder and former CEO] Arnie [Bellini] to Jason.”

Magee was thrust into the top job at ConnectWise in 2019 after private equity fund Thoma Bravo merged it with smaller rival Continuum, which it also owned.

“From my interactions with him, Jason was a very caring leader who wanted what was best for the teams under him,” said the president of Toledo, Ohio-based CNWR Jason Slagle, one of ConnectWise’s most vocal MSPs. “It’ll be sad to see him go, but in this current cut-throat environment of acquisitions and pricing changes, I can understand why a change was necessary.”

ConnectWise provides remote monitoring and management, ticketing, backup, and cybersecurity products to about 45,000 partners around the world. It competes with Miami-based Kaseya as well as smaller players such as HaloPSA , Syncro, and NinjaOne, for share of the MSP platform market.

ConnectWise was founded by Bellini, who also installed the first instances of the pioneering BMS product to its first MSPs, and then steered the meteoric rise of the company as those IT provider customers became the backbone of the nation’s digital transformation in the first decades of the century.