Sage North America Loses Its Top Sales Executive

Tom Miller, vice president of channel management at Sage Business Solutions at Sage North America, part of the U.K.-based Sage Group PLC, will assume Johnson's position on an interim basis while the company searches for a replacement.

Johnson, who had been at Sage for about three years, was offered "another opportunity in his career that he just couldn't pass up," Miller said in a phone interview. More information about where Johnson is headed wasn't immediately available.

Johnson played a key role in rejuvenating Sage North America's channel operations and in the last two years had been building up the company's channel management ranks. This includes the hiring of Miller, whose efforts to overhaul the company's channel programs have begun to pay off, according to partners..

Miller sent a note to Sage's channel partners Tuesday informing them of Johnson's departure. The company's channel program has some 5,000 resellers, 6,000 consultants and 20,000 accountants. The last group works with the company's accounting applications for their clients.

"The message to the partners is that there is no change in the company's channel operations," Miller said. Johnson's departure "does not diminish in any way our commitment to the channel." He added that the company's sales and channel manager ranks are "very strong and stable."

Johnson's departure is the latest announced change to Sage North America's executive ranks. In October Jodi Uecker-Rust, head of Sage Business Solutions since February 2009, stepped down for personal reasons. And earlier this month CEO Sue Swenson announced that she will retire in mid-2011.

Pascal Houillon, previously CEO of Sage France and currently filling Uecker-Rust's post, will take over Swenson's role after her departure from the company.