Batty joined this month as director of internal comms, following just over a year at music-streaming service Pandora, before which she worked for LinkedIn. She has relocated to London from the US for the role.
She is the latest appointment by Lawson, who joined UK-headquartered Sage in mid-2015.
Lawson now oversees a team of 40 comms specialists that she has reorganised into a single global unit, with those employees having previously worked only for individual territories within Sage's 23 markets.
Earlier this year, Sage took on Jane Thompson as senior director of global comms. The firm's most senior US-based comms staffer, she was previously executive director of comms at Dell. She oversees a network of in-country comms leads.
Roster change
Lawson's team has also this year confirmed FTI Consulting as its lead corporate PR agency, with San Francisco's Launch Squad in charge of technology thought leadership. The previous incumbents were Tulchan and Bite. London's Red Lorry Yellow Lorry has taken on a new product PR brief. The three global agencies work alongside a roster of in-country agencies.
Last year, Rebecca Potgieter, previously at O2, was hired as director of corporate comms. Natasha Thomas of agency Brands2Life was also hired as director of government relations.
Lawson promoted Julia Commons to the role of director of product PR and analyst relations at the same time. All three are UK-based.
Lawson said: "Sage has been on a massive transformation in more ways than one. Not only have we leapfrogged the competition with the technology we create for our customers – small and scaling businesses around the world – but we have also transformed our business.
"Communications has been at the heart of that and was one of the first functions to adopt the model of a team of discipline experts serving a network of local comms leaders."
Read next: Moves and shakers - 13 of the biggest appointments and departures in 2017
