Who Owns Avanade?

Avanade was formed on April 4, 2000, as a joint venture between Andersen Consulting and Microsoft, at the tail end of the dot-com era. The logic was straightforward: Microsoft technology was entering the enterprise, and Microsoft needed a services channel it did not want to build itself. Andersen Consulting, soon renamed Accenture, wanted a dedicated vehicle for Microsoft-platform work. The name Avanade is a portmanteau of avenue and promenade.

The company grew rapidly through the 2000s by riding Microsoft's enterprise expansion, delivering Windows, Exchange, SQL Server, and later Azure implementations. A 2007 expansion of the joint venture agreement deepened the relationship, and Avanade became the leading global systems integrator in the Microsoft partner ecosystem, winning Microsoft's Partner of the Year recognition more than a dozen times across categories.

Leadership transitions mark its phases. Founding CEO Mitch Hill gave way to Adam Warby (2008 to 2019), who scaled the company past 30,000 employees and pushed it into digital agency work through acquisitions. Pamela Maynard led from 2019 to 2024, followed by Rodrigo Caserta, who began repositioning the firm toward mid-market clients alongside its traditional enterprise focus. Chris Howarth took over in February 2026.

By 2025 the company employed roughly 56,000 to 60,000 professionals globally, generated an estimated $3 billion to $4 billion in annual revenue, and counted about 80 percent of results from enterprise clients while building a direct mid-market channel that leadership describes as its next growth engine.