Sage and Saunter

Icon 2 About Us​ Icon 1

Icon 2 Values Icon 1

  • No Sugar: Transparency in everything we do to deliver you the solutions you need
  • Make it mine: Every solution customized to your unique requirements
  • Giving Grit: We lived it, so we can coach you through it

Born from boardrooms and built for bold transitions​

After years leading corporate HR strategy, our founder saw a gap — small and mid-sized businesses facing high-stakes growth without the guidance they deserved. Sage & Saunter was created to fill that void: offering sharp, strategic support where it’s most needed, from compliance to culture to acquisition readiness.

It's all in the name

“Sage” reflects the wisdom behind every recommendation — seasoned, practical, and earned through experience. “Saunter” captures the calm, confident stride of a business that knows where it’s going. Together, they represent our philosophy: offer clarity, move intentionally, and build long-term value.
Icon 2 Meet the Minds Icon 1

Ashleigh Beadle

Founder | Strategic Advisor | CEO

Ashleigh Beadle is an accomplished CEO, CPO, and reinventor with a robust background in the technology industry. With a passion for driving organizational resilience and growth, she has a proven track record of leading through high-stakes mergers & acquisitions, navigating significant organizational development, and building diverse, high-performing teams across the globe.

Known as a strategic operational leader, Ashleigh is recognized for her ability to scale organizations with a creative, results-oriented approach, transforming human capital into a powerful business asset. Her commitment to optimizing workflows, enhancing productivity, and fostering environments where employees thrive, has been instrumental in building empowered teams that contribute to a shared vision of vitality.

Ashleigh is defined by a blend of honesty, grit, and a sense of humor. She firmly believes that laughter and authenticity foster stronger connections, whether leading teams or partnering with firms on their scaling strategy. Through her work, she strives to not only meet business objectives but also nurture the people who drive those goals forward. Leading the industry revolution, Ashleigh is dedicated to cultivating the relationship between people, progress and organizational advancement.

Michael J. Ducsak, CISSP 

Cybersecurity Executive | Strategic Advisor | CISO

Michael J. Ducsak is a cybersecurity executive and strategic advisor with over 20 years of experience designing, implementing, and scaling enterprise security programs across diverse and highly regulated industries. As a trusted CISO and executive leader, he has built global cybersecurity organizations from the ground up, managed multimillion-dollar security budgets, and led cross-functional teams through complex digital transformations, M&A integrations, and compliance initiatives.

Michael’s leadership spans the full cybersecurity lifecycle—from threat detection and incident response to risk management, governance, and regulatory compliance. He has successfully led companies through high-stakes audits for ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, FISMA, and NIST, often with zero findings. His work has directly contributed to reducing corporate risk, increasing operational resilience, and securing the infrastructures of platforms used by tens of millions of users.

As CISO for organizations including Educational Testing Service and Sourcepass, Michael has led cybersecurity integration efforts across numerous M&A transactions, scaled security operations to meet rapid growth, and embedded a culture of security throughout complex global enterprises. His leadership has driven measurable improvements in enterprise-wide security posture, strengthening policy compliance, individual accountability, and stakeholder engagement across all levels of the business.

Michael is also a passionate mentor, author, and speaker. He has written two internal books on enterprise network security and frequently presents at industry conferences on cybersecurity strategy, risk governance, and security leadership. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, a CISSP certification, and a Graduate Certificate in Cybersecurity from Harvard University.

Today, Michael continues to advise growing companies, startups, and executive teams on how to build sustainable security programs that drive business value. He is known for turning complex challenges into clear strategies and transforming cybersecurity from a cost center into a competitive advantage.