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SADA’s 2024 CEO Transition: Dana Berg’s Growth Plans and What Happened Next

Dana Berg’s 2024 succession plan aimed to combine SADA’s Google Cloud expertise with Insight’s scale. Official pages now conflict about his status.
From TheFinanceBase Team6 min to read
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Dana Berg was scheduled to succeed Tony Safoian as SADA’s CEO on October 17, 2024, with a strategy built around continuity, Insight’s reach and growth in Google Cloud, AI and multicloud services. That was the plan at the time—not proof that projected growth followed. SADA’s current public pages also conflict about Berg’s status, so this is a retrospective account of the transition, not a claim that he leads the company today.

What changed at SADA in October 2024?

In an interview with CRN, Berg said he was due to take over as CEO on October 17, 2024, when Tony Safoian retired. Berg had been SADA’s chief operating officer since 2018 and was to report to Dee Burger, Insight’s North America president. Berg said no other executive departures were tied to Safoian’s exit; that was a statement about the transition at the time, not a guarantee about later staffing.

The handoff came after Insight completed its acquisition of SADA on December 1, 2023. Safoian’s retirement was described as unrelated to the ongoing integration. CRN reported that Safoian was 46 and had led the company for nearly 24 years.

Berg was an internal successor with direct knowledge of SADA’s people, customers, service model and Google Cloud work. CRN reported that he had spent about four years at Hitachi Consulting before joining SADA. SADA’s own biography described him as having nearly 25 years in technology and professional services, including work involving enterprise content management and life-sciences systems. That career summary is company-provided. (SADA biography)

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What Berg meant by “only beginning to scratch the surface”

The phrase referred to opportunities Berg believed SADA and Insight had not yet fully pursued together—not a claim that the strategy had already produced results. His thesis was to preserve SADA’s customer-facing strengths while using Insight’s broader customer base and capabilities to expand the business.

  • Reach: Introduce SADA’s Google Cloud expertise to more of Insight’s customers and use Insight’s sales resources to widen market access.
  • Broader cloud work: Pair SADA’s Google Cloud capabilities with Insight’s Azure and AWS services for customers with more than one cloud platform.
  • AI at production scale: Move beyond proofs of concept toward larger deployments, while continuing to work closely with Google Cloud on AI and new products.
  • Other services: Pursue opportunities in areas such as infrastructure and security, alongside AI and cloud consulting.
  • Possible acquisitions: Berg said strategic acquisitions remained an option but did not announce a pending deal.

These were management’s stated priorities and expectations in 2024. The interview does not establish that cross-selling, production deployments or acquisitions subsequently achieved particular results.

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Why Insight bought SADA

Insight presented the acquisition as a way to add Google Cloud depth to an organization already working across Microsoft Azure and AWS. SADA was described as a consultancy and technology-services provider—not simply a reseller—with capabilities in engineering, migration, applications, data, security, AI and managed services. Insight’s announcement said the deal strengthened services spanning cloud, analytics, cybersecurity, intelligent edge, DevOps, application modernization and workplace technology. (SADA’s acquisition announcement; Insight’s acquisition overview)

At the time of the acquisition announcement, Insight said SADA brought approximately 850 Google Cloud-dedicated professionals and 10 Google Cloud specializations. Those are historical announcement figures, not verified current headcount or specialization totals. The deal’s strategic logic was complementary skills and broader customer access; it should not be mistaken for a merger of equals or evidence that every customer would receive the same level of expertise on each cloud.

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AI ambitions: forecasts, evidence and the gap between a demo and production

Berg’s AI argument was that the market was moving beyond hype and proofs of concept, with larger projects expected to reach production in the fourth quarter and the following fiscal year. That was a forecast, not a report of completed deployments. SADA separately reported that its generative-AI and machine-learning projects increased by more than 300% in 2023, attributing momentum to customer use of Google Cloud’s Gemini and Vertex AI. The figure is a company-reported project-growth claim, not an independently audited measure of revenue, deployment success or customer outcomes. (SADA’s 2023 announcement)

For a buyer, the distinction matters: a growing pipeline of experiments does not by itself show that AI systems are reliable, secure or economical in routine use. Production work typically requires sound data, security and governance controls, evaluation, integration with existing processes, cost management and a measurable business purpose. A provider’s ability to run a workshop or build a demonstration is not the same evidence as experience operating a production system.

Continuity, culture and the leadership bench

SADA was founded in 2000 by Hovig and Annie Safoian. Their son Tony led it for nearly 24 years. Berg said he wanted to preserve the company’s emphasis on transparency, trust, empathy, technical knowledge and customer service as ownership and leadership changed. The challenge was larger than a CEO handoff: how to retain a founder-era service culture within a larger corporate organization.

The family transition was already underway. Hovig Safoian had retired earlier in 2024, and Annie Safoian planned to retire as treasurer at the end of SADA’s fiscal year on December 31, 2024. CRN also reported four internal promotions around this period: Ferhan Zaki to SVP of sales for North America; John Campbell to SVP of Google solution sales; Jana Jensen to VP of business operations; and Peter FitzGibbon to SVP of professional services. These promotions indicated a broader effort to build leadership depth, though they do not establish how the company performed afterward.

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What the transition meant for SADA customers

Berg’s message to customers was that the transition would be smooth and business would continue as usual. Those were assurances from the incoming CEO, not independently measured outcomes. The announced handoff did not itself say that customer contracts, account teams or support arrangements would change.

Insight ownership potentially broadened the services available to customers, particularly those operating across Google Cloud, Azure and AWS. It also raised a practical question: could a larger integrator preserve the focused expertise and responsiveness customers valued in SADA? A buyer evaluating a project or renewal should establish the specifics rather than infer them from the acquisition announcement.

  • Who will own the account, delivery decisions and escalation path?
  • Which team has relevant experience in the exact Google Cloud workload, and who will perform ongoing operations?
  • For AI work, can the provider show production references and explain its approach to data governance, security, evaluation, integration and cost controls?
  • If workloads span clouds, who is accountable for architecture, security and cost management across platforms?
  • How will the engagement be priced and scoped, and what happens to service responsibilities if account or delivery teams change?

The right comparison depends on the buyer’s needs. SADA/Insight could suit an organization seeking Google Cloud expertise alongside multicloud reach; a Google Cloud-focused specialist may be a better match for a narrowly scoped project where deep single-platform focus matters most. The cited materials do not establish public standard consulting prices or independently validate customer outcomes.

What public company pages say about Berg now

Current official pages give conflicting signals. Insight’s leadership page still labels Berg “CEO, Sada, an Insight company.” SADA’s page is an “In Memoriam” page that describes him as SADA CEO from 2024–2025. The pages reviewed do not explain the discrepancy, give circumstances, or identify a successor. It is therefore appropriate to describe Berg as the incoming CEO in the October 2024 transition story, but not to present him as SADA’s current CEO.

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How to read the 2024 strategy

The succession was framed as continuity combined with integration: keep SADA’s Google Cloud specialization and service culture while drawing on Insight’s scale to expand reach, cloud coverage and AI work. The interview recorded a plan and a set of expectations. It did not establish that proofs of concept became production systems, that customer relationships remained unchanged, or that the anticipated commercial gains materialized.

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