Exact has named Paul Ramakers as managing director of its Business Solutions Division. The most notable thing about this is it is the first announcement made by the company since it went private at the end of March with its buyout by funds advised by Apax Partners. The move has no immediate impact in this country, but there are some implications. The job had been vacant since Marinus ter Laak resigned in December.

Missed the defeat of the University of Kentucky basketball team because it was broadcast on Turner and we don't have full cable. I also missed the broadcast of the traditional sacrifice of the losing coach in Lexington. I hear it was accompanied by the usual assortment of chanting Druids and the sacrifice of a goat and the reading of its entrails. ... I have had a lot of requests about my singing recently. But I'm posting videos of it on Facebook anyway. ... While I was singing, a friend was putting down newspapers. "I have a trained voice," I protested. "Yeah, but I'm putting out the papers just in case."

Avalara has hired Michael J. Turner as its first chief marketing officer. The Bainbridge Island, Wash.-based sales tax vendor said Turner was most recently CEO and president of 1-800-DENTIST and served there from July 2010 through February this year. He was CMO at LegalZoom from 2005 through 2010 and EVP of Teleflora's consumer business from 2001 through 2010. Avalara noted the growth in its executive ranks reflects the course of its business.