Hugo Sarrazin Takes Over as CEO of Avalara

Hugo Sarrazin, former president and CEO of education technology company Udemy, was appointed chief executive of Avalara on Thursday. He succeeds Scott McFarlane, Avalara’s original CEO, who will become an advisor to the company he co-founded in 2004.

As CEO of Avalara, Sarrazin will lead the tax and compliance solutions company’s global operations and strategy, focusing on scaling the business, strengthening execution, and advancing innovation for customers and partners worldwide, according to a May 28 media release.

He will also join Avalara’s Board of Directors.

“I’m excited to join the leader for tax and compliance that leverages proprietary data and deep domain expertise to deliver intelligent, dynamic solutions for customers worldwide,” Sarrazin said in a statement. “Avalara is helping define how AI agents can automate and simplify compliance at global scale and already has a leading AI-powered platform and market presence that few companies can replicate. The opportunity now is to accelerate innovation even further, turning that advantage into more seamless outcomes for customers and partners globally.”

Sarrazin has more than 30 years of experience building and scaling global software and technology businesses, most recently at Udemy where he spent the past year, according to his LinkedIn profile. He recently led the company through its sale to online learning platform Coursera, which became official on May 11.

Prior to Udemy, Sarrazin was president and chief product and technology officer at UKG, where he led cloud transformation initiatives, expanded AI-driven solutions, and drove strategic acquisitions at the human capital management software company. He also spent 26 years at management consultancy McKinsey & Company, advising global organizations on digital transformation and M&A, and co-founded McKinsey Digital Labs.

In a post on LinkedIn Thursday, Sarrazin wrote he was “honored to build on the incredible foundation McFarlane and the Avalara team have created.”

“Scott pioneered the category, built a remarkable company and culture, and positioned Avalara at the forefront of innovation in agentic tax and compliance. I’m grateful for his partnership and ongoing support,” he wrote.

McFarlane has led Avalara for more than two decades, growing it from a startup on Bainbridge Island, WA, into an international provider of tax and compliance solutions, supporting more than 1 million businesses worldwide.

Under his leadership, Avalara completed its 2018 initial public offering and became a global AI-first platform with more than $1.3 billion in annual revenue and an ecosystem of more than 1,400 integrations.

“Avalara is stronger today than at any point in our history,” McFarlane said in a statement. “We’ve built a category leader with real scale and a platform that’s becoming more critical as tax and compliance grow more complex. The next chapter is about moving faster and delivering more for our customers and partners. Hugo brings the operational and technology leadership needed to accelerate what comes next.”

In a post on LinkedIn Thursday, Sona Akmakjian, global lead of strategic accounting partnerships at Avalara, thanked McFarlane for his leadership, vision, and the impact he has had on the company’s customers, partners, and employees through the years.

“You not only shaped the growth of the business and culture but you transformed the tax compliance industry,” she said.