Avalara has named Hugo Sarrazin as its new chief executive officer, marking a major leadership transition as the tax and compliance software company looks to accelerate growth and deepen its AI capabilities.
Sarrazin succeeds co-founder Scott McFarlane, who will move into an advisory role after leading the company for more than two decades. The transition is designed to maintain continuity while sharpening Avalara’s focus on execution, innovation and global expansion.
Sarrazin will oversee Avalara’s worldwide operations and strategy. He will also join the company’s Board of Directors.
AI ambitions
The appointment comes as Avalara intensifies its push into agentic AI and automated compliance solutions.
"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," said Sarrazin. "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 brings more than 30 years of experience in technology and software leadership. He most recently served as President and CEO of Udemy, where he expanded the business through product-led growth, acquisitions and AI-focused innovation. He also led the company through its sale to Coursera.
Before that, he was President and Chief Product and Technology Officer at UKG, where he oversaw cloud transformation initiatives, AI-driven product development and strategic acquisitions.
Earlier in his career, Sarrazin spent 26 years at McKinsey & Company, advising organisations on digital transformation and mergers and acquisitions. He also co-founded McKinsey Digital Labs.
Building a global leader
McFarlane co-founded Avalara in 2004 and transformed the company from a start-up on Bainbridge Island, Washington, into a global tax and compliance technology leader.
Under his leadership, Avalara pioneered cloud-based compliance solutions, completed its initial public offering in 2018 and expanded into a business generating more than $1.3bn in annual revenue.
Today, the company supports more than one million businesses worldwide through a network of over 1,400 integrations and partnerships spanning ERP, ecommerce and financial systems.
Compliance evolution
"Avalara is stronger today than at any point in our history," said McFarlane. "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."
The leadership change comes as the firm continues investing heavily in AI-powered compliance tools.
The company says its platform processes tens of billions of transactions each year, helping businesses manage increasingly complex tax and regulatory requirements across global markets.
Recent innovations include Agentic Tax and Compliance and the Avalara LLM framework for agentic applications. These technologies are designed to automate compliance processes, improve accuracy and deliver real-time outcomes for customers.
With Sarrazin at the helm, the company is betting that AI-driven automation will become the next major growth engine for tax and compliance, positioning the company for its next phase of global expansion.