Sage Appoints Two C-suite Leaders to Drive AI Strategy

FTSE-listed fintech Sage has recruited two senior executives to lead product development and strategic planning as the enterprise software company looks to expand its presence in the global small and medium business market.

Krish Vitaldevara will join as Chief Product Officer and Anand Swaminathan as Chief Strategy Officer. 

The appointments support Sage's focus on embedding AI across its financial workflow platform whilst targeting deeper market penetration.

Two executives join leadership team

Krish will join Sage's Executive Leadership Team on 18 May followed by Anand on 15 June. Both executives will be based in San Jose, California.

The hires come as Sage continues to develop its platform around AI-powered financial workflows. The company provides finance, HR and payroll software to small and medium businesses.

Steve Hare, CEO at Sage, says: "Krish and Anand are proven leaders with deep experience building and scaling world-class products and businesses. Their appointments reflect our continued investment in innovation and growth and I'm excited about the impact they'll have for our customers, colleagues and partners."

Krish will lead Sage's global product and platform strategy in his role as Chief Product Officer. 

His remit includes overseeing the innovation roadmap and delivery to ensure the company continues to deliver what Sage describes as "trusted, intuitive and intelligent AI solutions" at scale.

Experience across enterprise technology companies

Krish brings more than 25 years of experience from enterprise technology companies including Salesforce, Google, Microsoft and NetApp. Most recently he served as General Manager and Executive Vice President at Salesforce where he played a role following its acquisition of Informatica.

At Salesforce he led integration across products and teams. His background spans AI-first platforms and distributed systems.

He holds more than 30 patents spanning trust and safety, anomaly detection and large-scale systems. These capabilities could be relevant to financial software development.

Krish says: "I'm excited to be joining Sage at such an important moment for the business. Sage has a unique purpose, a strong customer focus and culture and a compelling opportunity to lead in intelligent, trusted solutions for small and medium-sized businesses. 

“I'm looking forward to working with the team to continue evolving the product portfolio and delivering meaningful impact for customers."

Focus on corporate strategy and growth

Anand will oversee corporate strategy, growth priorities and long-term value creation as Chief Strategy Officer. He will work with the executive team on strategic execution.

Anand joins Sage from McKinsey where he was a Senior Partner advising global organisations on AI transformation, enterprise strategy and technology-enabled growth. His earlier experience at Accenture Digital saw him help scale global capabilities across data, cloud and digital product development.

His blend of advisory and operational experience could position him to guide Sage through its next phase of expansion as AI reshapes competitive dynamics across financial services and software.

"Sage has a clear strategy and a powerful position in the market," Anand says. "I'm thrilled to join the business and to help shape the next phase of growth, building on Sage's strengths and ensuring we continue to create long-term value for customers, colleagues and shareholders."

Platform approach to financial software

The appointments come as Sage continues to develop its core proposition of delivering AI-powered finance, HR and payroll solutions that connect small and medium business ecosystems. 

The company aims to digitalise processes across customers, suppliers, employees and financial institutions to reduce friction and provide real-time insights.

In this model, accounting software becomes the hub for broader financial and operational workflows.