Sage Announces Two New Appointments to Its North American Executive Team

IRVINE, CA--(Marketwired - Mar 2, 2015) -  Sage North America, a leading provider of business management software and services to small and medium-sized businesses, today announced the appointments of Paul Bridgewater as CEO of Sage Payment Solutions, and Jim Emerick as executive vice president of customer support. Both will report to President and CEO Pascal Houillon. 

Paul joins Sage after most recently working for TSYS as the group executive and general manager of global product and innovation. Paul started his career in the UK working as an engineer and then joined Anker Data where he held positions in product management and field service engineering. He then worked for NatWest Group in its international merchant services business. Later, Paul joined Citibank and worked across Europe with roles in business development, product management, sales and distribution. After five years at Citi, Paul moved to the U.S. and joined Digital River as the SVP of Global Payment Services.

"The payments industry is evolving so quickly as technology companies introduce new products and services and partner with financial services providers to make it more convenient and secure for consumers and companies to do business," said Bridgewater. "The Sage Payment Solutions platform provides businesses with a critical piece to meeting the broader business goal of providing the best customer experience possible. I look forward to ensuring Sage and our customers remain ahead of the technology curve today and tomorrow."

Jim joins Sage most recently from Bank of America where he led a 3,000-person global customer service function. During his 10-year career there, he also held senior-level operating roles in the consumer banking, small business and mortgage lending businesses, with up to 12,000 people reporting into his organization. Jim started his career in the aerospace industry and worked for TRW and Honeywell in a variety of roles, including general manager and VP of sales and marketing. Jim is also an adjunct faculty member teaching at Pepperdine University's Executive MBA program.