Steve Hare: Yorkshire Chartered Accountant, Cloud Software Pioneer, and Chief Executive Officer of Sage Group Home Finance Fabrice Beaux 30/08/2026 Steve Hare is a British business executive whose career encompasses two decades of senior financial leadership at some of the United Kingdom's most significant listed companies and a formative period as an operating partner at Apax Partners. Since November 2018, he has held the chief executive role at Sage Group, the Newcastle-headquartered FTSE 100 enterprise software company. Sage provides cloud-based accounting, payroll, and business management solutions to millions of small and medium-sized businesses worldwide. Under his leadership, Sage has undergone one of the most significant transformations in its nearly four-decade history: the systematic migration of its product portfolio from perpetual-licence desktop software to a cloud-native, subscription-based model that has reshaped the company's revenue profile, competitive positioning, and long-term growth trajectory. Sage Group, listed on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker SGE and a consistent member of the FTSE 100 index, serves approximately three million customers in more than 20 countries through a portfolio that encompasses Sage Accounting, Sage Payroll, Sage People, and enterprise resource planning products for larger businesses. The company employs approximately 11,000 people and generates annual revenues exceeding £2 billion. Its customer base — overwhelmingly the small and medium-sized businesses that form the backbone of every economy it operates in — gives it a mission with genuine social and economic resonance: helping the businesses that create the most employment and generate the most economic dynamism to manage their finances, pay their people, and grow with confidence. Born on 15 April 1961 in Withernsea — a small coastal town on the East Riding of Yorkshire's North Sea coast — Hare's biography reflects a combination of Northern English practicality, international exposure through a formative childhood in Hong Kong, and the rigorous financial discipline of a trained chartered accountant who has spent his career at the intersection of technology and finance. His appointment as Sage's CEO, first on an interim basis following the sudden departure of his predecessor and then permanently in November 2018, was the product of four years of effective service as the company's Chief Financial Officer and a deep understanding of the transformation journey that Sage needed to undertake. Early Life and Education of Steve Hare Stephen Hare was born on 15 April 1961 in Withernsea, East Riding of Yorkshire — a coastal market town facing the grey expanses of the North Sea, whose communities have been shaped by fishing, agriculture, and the quiet resilience of English provincial life. He was the youngest of six children, and when he was six years old his family relocated to Hong Kong, where his father's career had taken the family. This early immersion in one of Asia's most dynamic commercial cities — Hong Kong in the late 1960s and early 1970s was undergoing the rapid industrialisation and trade expansion that would transform it into one of the world's premier financial centres — gave Hare an early appreciation of international commerce and the diversity of human experience that has been evident throughout his career. At the age of eleven, the family returned to England, and Hare was enrolled at Pocklington School — an independent boarding school in the market town of Pocklington in East Yorkshire, founded in 1514 and known for its strong academic tradition and its formation of well-rounded, practically intelligent young people. The discipline of boarding school life, combined with the school's emphasis on academic rigour and personal development, gave Hare the focused, systematic approach to learning and problem-solving that has characterised his professional career. He subsequently pursued higher education at the University of Liverpool, where he earned a Bachelor of Commerce with a concentration in Economics and Accounting between 1979 and 1982. Liverpool University's commerce faculty — embedded in one of England's great trading and mercantile cities — gave him a grounding in both the theoretical frameworks of economics and the practical disciplines of accounting that proved directly applicable to his subsequent professional path. Following his degree, he trained with Ernst & Whinney — now EY — qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 1985, adding the professional credential that would serve as the foundational mark of his financial credibility throughout a career in senior finance leadership. Steve Hare's Early Career at Ernst & Young and GEC/Marconi After qualifying as a chartered accountant, Hare joined General Electric Company — the British GEC, not to be confused with the American General Electric — in 1989. GEC was at the time one of the United Kingdom's largest and most diversified industrial and defence electronics companies, a sprawling conglomerate whose businesses spanned telecommunications, defence electronics, power systems, and consumer goods. Working within GEC in the late 1980s and early 1990s gave Hare exposure to the complexities of managing large, multi-business organisations and the financial disciplines required to allocate capital and measure performance across diverse industrial operations. His time at GEC encompassed the company's dramatic transformation into Marconi plc — the telecommunications and defence electronics company that emerged from GEC's late-1990s restructuring, during which its managing director Lord Weinstock sold the company's industrial businesses and refocused on networks and IT. Hare rose to become Chief Financial Officer of Marconi plc, serving in the role from 2001 to 2003. This was an exceptionally demanding tenure: Marconi had overextended itself through acquisitions at the peak of the technology bubble, and when the bubble burst, the company faced near-collapse, undertaking a debt restructuring that became one of the most closely watched corporate crisis management cases in UK business history. Hare's management of Marconi's finances through that period — navigating creditor negotiations, managing cash flows under extreme pressure, and maintaining stakeholder communication through crisis — gave him an unparalleled education in financial stewardship under adversity. Steve Hare at Spectris, Invensys, and Apax Partners Following his Marconi CFO tenure, Hare moved into a series of senior finance leadership roles at other major UK-listed companies. He served as Group Finance Director at Spectris plc from 2004 to 2006 — the precision instrumentation and controls company whose products serve the pharmaceutical, electronics, energy, and industrial sectors. The Spectris role gave him experience of CFO leadership in a focused, high-quality industrial technology business, managing the financial strategy of a company with strong international revenues and a portfolio of market-leading niche product brands. From 2006 to 2009, he served as CFO of Invensys plc — the FTSE 100 industrial automation and controls technology company whose portfolio encompassed Foxboro process control systems, Wonderware industrial software, and other leading industrial automation brands. Invensys's complex, internationally distributed business — serving oil and gas, power generation, manufacturing, and infrastructure customers globally — gave Hare experience of CFO leadership at significant scale across a genuinely diverse set of industrial technology markets. In 2009, Hare made the transition from corporate finance leadership to private equity, joining Apax Partners — one of the world's leading global private equity firms — as an Operating Partner and Co-Head of the Portfolio Support Group. Over approximately four years at Apax, he worked with the firm's portfolio companies across Europe and globally, bringing operational finance discipline and strategic perspective to businesses in the technology, healthcare, and business services sectors. The Apax experience gave him a different vantage point on business management: the investor's perspective on value creation, operational improvement, and strategic positioning that has informed his subsequent leadership approach at Sage. Steve Hare as CFO and CEO of Sage Group In January 2014, Hare joined Sage Group as Chief Financial Officer — the company's most senior finance role, overseeing financial strategy, capital allocation, investor relations, and financial reporting for a company that was at the time primarily a perpetual-licence software business navigating the early stages of the cloud transition that was reshaping the entire enterprise software industry. His most significant achievement as CFO was overseeing Sage's acquisition of Intacct in July 2017 for $850 million — the largest acquisition in Sage's history, which brought the leading cloud-native financial management software company for mid-market businesses into the Sage portfolio and dramatically accelerated the company's cloud capabilities and North American presence. On 31 August 2018, Sage announced that CEO Stephen Kelly had stepped down by mutual agreement. Hare was immediately appointed Chief Operating Officer on an interim basis, providing continuity of commercial and operational leadership while the board considered the permanent succession. On 2 November 2018, he was appointed CEO on a full-time basis — a decision that reflected the board's confidence in a leader who had deep knowledge of the company's business, its cloud transformation challenge, and the operational and cultural changes needed to execute the strategy effectively. As CEO, Hare has driven Sage's transition from a traditional software licence model to a cloud-native, subscription-based business with remarkable consistency and commercial discipline. The company's recurring revenue — subscriptions and software as a service — has grown to represent the substantial majority of total revenues, giving Sage the financial predictability, customer retention metrics, and long-term compounding growth characteristics that the investment community values in cloud software businesses. In a 2020 Glassdoor poll conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, Hare was named the UK's number one CEO, achieving a 95% approval rating based on anonymous employee reviews — a recognition that reflects the quality of his internal leadership and the care he demonstrated for Sage's people during an exceptionally difficult period. In April 2025, he was appointed as an independent non-executive director on the board of J Sainsbury plc, the UK's second-largest supermarket group. Leadership Style of Steve Hare Hare leads with a calm, thoughtful, and people-focused style that reflects both his Yorkshire character and his long experience of managing through adversity — from Marconi's near-collapse to the COVID-19 pandemic. He is known for clarity of communication, genuine accessibility, and the ability to simplify complex strategic choices into clear organisational priorities. His repeated recognition in employee surveys as one of the UK's most respected CEOs reflects a leadership philosophy that combines strategic ambition with genuine care for the wellbeing and development of the people who execute it. He has spoken publicly about the importance of listening — really listening — as the most undervalued skill in corporate leadership. Business Success of Steve Hare Hare's business record at Sage encompasses the company's successful transformation from a traditional perpetual-licence software business to a cloud-native subscription company, delivering consistent revenue growth and expanding operating margins during the transition. The Intacct acquisition, the continued development of Sage's cloud product portfolio, and the company's sustained organic growth in recurring revenue have been the primary commercial achievements of his CEO tenure. Sage's revenue exceeded £2 billion for the first time under his leadership, and the company's recurring revenue mix has become one of the highest-quality in the European enterprise software sector. He was named UK number one CEO by Glassdoor in 2020 with a 95% approval rating. Net Worth of Steve Hare Steve Hare's estimated net worth is in the range of £10 million to £25 million, reflecting his career compensation across Spectris, Invensys, Apax Partners, and Sage Group, including base salaries, annual performance bonuses, and long-term equity awards accumulated across his roles as Sage CFO and CEO. His CEO compensation at Sage includes a base salary, annual bonus, and long-term incentive plan awards tied to Sage's total shareholder return and underlying operating profit performance. His four years as CFO, during which he oversaw the transformative Intacct acquisition, contributed meaningfully to his equity accumulation prior to the CEO appointment. Awards and Recognition of Steve Hare Hare was named UK's number one CEO by Glassdoor in a 2020 poll during the COVID-19 pandemic, achieving a 95% approval score based on anonymous employee reviews — one of the most meaningful CEO recognition metrics because it reflects the genuine views of the people who work directly for him. Sage under his leadership ranked in the Top 50 for Best Leadership Teams and Best Career Growth in Comparably's Q2 2021 awards, as determined by over ten million anonymous employee ratings. In April 2025, he was appointed as an independent non-executive director of J Sainsbury plc, one of the UK's most significant corporate boards, reflecting the breadth of confidence in his governance capabilities beyond the Sage context. Personal Background of Steve Hare Steve Hare was born on 15 April 1961 in Withernsea, East Riding of Yorkshire, the youngest of six children. He spent part of his childhood in Hong Kong and attended Pocklington School in Yorkshire. He earned his Bachelor of Commerce in Economics and Accounting from the University of Liverpool in 1982 and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Whinney in 1985. He is 64 years old, married, and lives near York — keeping his roots firmly in the Yorkshire landscape that shaped his character. He is known for personal directness, a genuine commitment to the people around him, and the kind of understated confidence that characterises the best of Yorkshire business leadership. Influence and Legacy of Steve Hare Steve Hare's legacy at Sage will be the successful navigation of one of the most consequential strategic transitions in British software company history — the shift from perpetual-licence products to cloud-native subscriptions, executed at a company of Sage's scale, customer breadth, and geographic diversity. His success in maintaining employee engagement and customer loyalty through this transformation — demonstrated by the Glassdoor recognition and by Sage's sustained commercial performance — provides a model for how established enterprise software companies can manage the cloud transition without sacrificing either their cultural identity or their commercial momentum. As he continues to lead Sage's next phase of cloud investment and AI-enabled product development, his influence on the British technology sector will extend well beyond the company he has transformed. Leave your comment here Comment submitted and pending approval from admins Name (Required): Email : Website : Agree to terms and condition. Submit Comment Comments Comments (0) No comments found Name (Required): Email : Website : Agree to terms and condition. Submit Comment Fabrice Beaux Business Expert Fabrice Beaux is CEO and Founder of InsterHyve Systems Genève-based managed IT service provider. They provide the latest and customized IT Solutions for small and medium-sized businesses. Fabrice Beaux is CEO and Founder of InsterHyve Systems Genève-based managed IT service provider. They provide the latest and customized IT Solutions for small and medium-sized businesses. 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