5 Things You Need To Know About New ConnectWise CEO Jason Magee

Meet The New Boss

Jason Magee may be new to the corner office, but he’s worked for ConnectWise for eight years. Magee has been chief operating officer since 2016, and in December, Magee was named president and chief operating officer.

According to outgoing CEO Arnie Bellini, Magee’s elevation to CEO is part of a methodical five-year plan he oversaw to guarantee the company had a smooth transition.

“I’ve been mentoring my management team and grooming successors,” Bellini said. “I was grooming three successors. Jason was the clear and obvious choice. So this has been a very methodical, well thought out five year plan that we’ve been executing upon.”

Magee has more than 20 years of technology, sales channel management, and IT market experience, the company said. Magee has spent much of his career immersed in the MSP and VAR landscape.

“Our success has been founded on deep interactions with our partners through our IT Nation events and peer groups. We will continue to invest in our partner community and provide the solutions they need to deliver all technology as a service to the world. I am excited that the Thoma Bravo partnership will accelerate our ability to continually develop the platform our partners need to succeed through acquisitions and innovation," Magee said.

What Are Magee’s Plans For The First 90 Days?

“After you go through something like this, you want to make sure the team gets focused.That we get the priorities aligned," said Magee. "So, after we go through something like this, just want to make sure everyone’s heads are in the right place. Make sure that our partners are understanding what just happened, and the positive impact this could mean for them.”

“We’re going to get the cyber security products that we mentioned at IT Nation in November. We’re going to get them launched in the near future. We’re going to work with our partners through advisory council, partner innovation network and all that stuff to help make sure we’re doing the right things to make sure they’re successful. That’s going to be the first 90 to 100 days.”

His Priorities In 2019

While Magee said there are no changes afoot, there is still plenty of work to get done. Continuing the conversations Bellini started last fall, Magee said getting partners practices up to speed on security will be one of the top priorities.

“For 2019 and longer-term strategy is going to be around cyber security and helping our partners get in the cyber security area, demystify it for them. Cyber security as a service, which also leads into technology as a service.”

Magee Is Also Keen On Delivering As-A-Service

As some MSPs struggle to transition their businesses to an as-a-service model, Magee said ConnectWise will be there to help them along.

“We believe everything will be delivered as-a-service. So we’ll continue along those lines.”

He said the company is doubling down on its one-click eco system, with everything connected, including Webroot, StorageCraft, and 235 other integrations that make it easier for partners to run their business, and focus on their customers.

“We’ll continue to make it easier for our partners to be able to execute and deliver and simplify their life, and around customer success,” he said.

Connectwise

On Not Breaking The Mold

While Magee will hold the reins, he said he has no plans to turn his back on what made ConnectWise a great company to do business with.

“We want to continue what we built this company on, which is strive to get our partners to be successful,” he said. “So we’ll continue to do that internally as well as work with our customers to get them there. So 2019 is going to be more of the same: cyber security, technology as a service, one click eco system and customer success.”

His Channel Pedigree

Magee has been with ConnectWise since 2011. During his time as COO, ConnectWise grew at a 21 percent cumulative annual growth rate with more than 81 percent growth in EBITDA.

Before joining ConnectWise, Jason held director-level positions at CA Technologies, managing teams, channel partners, strategic alliances and marketing budgets. There he built and launched industry-leading programs, partner incentives, and vendor initiatives. Earlier on, Jason spent five years gaining industry and channel experience at reseller companies Interactive Futures and Global Computers, where he held sales, marketing, and product management positions.

Jason is serving his second consecutive year on CompTIAs board of directors, after joining in February 2018.