Who is Steve Sarowitz? Kjersti Flaa reveals the real reason behind businessman shutting down the Wayfarer Foundation

Kjersti Flaa recently opened up on the possible reasons behind the shutdown of Wayfarer Foundation, owned by businessman Steve Sarowitz alongside actor Justin Baldoni. Steve has been serving in the company since it was formed in 2021.

Apart from that, Sarowitz has worked at other places like Paylocity and Blue Marble Payroll, as stated in his LinkedIn profile.

Notably, the news of Wayfarer’s closure was announced by the company on May this year through Instagram with a statement.

In a video shared through her YouTube channel on July 6, 2025, Kjersti Flaa praised Steve for once claiming that the purpose of money is to serve humanity.

The reporter and journalist addressed Steve Sarowitz’s philanthropic activities, including the donation of $160 million to Wayfarer Foundation.

Flaa said that in between all these, Steve was involved in some issues and referred to the same by saying:

“He was a target for an arson who also threatened to kidnap his daughter if they didn’t give this guy $80,000. This person threatened them and said that you can afford to pay Justin Baldoni’s legal bills and millions of dollars towards this lawsuit, then you can also afford to pay this money to free your daughter."

He added:

"Anyway, of course, this was extremely traumatizing for him and that incident is actually what triggered him to shut down Wayfarer Foundation.”

Kjersti said that Steve Sarowitz’s company was formed to “empower” a lot of people, including women. She further stated that Steve was eventually named in Blake Lively’s lawsuit, claiming that he allegedly funded a smear campaign.

Flaa mentioned that the lawsuit is the reason why multiple charities have lost their funding.

“There are some calls from people in here who received so much of his foundation, who are all like devastated now, and heartbroken because the funding stopped. He said that he will continue giving in private to some of these nonprofits or to some of these charities”, Flaa said.

Kjersti also claimed that Sarowitz would now like to maintain some distance from the spotlight since he is being targeted alongside his family members due to the lawsuit.

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Steve Sarowitz has served at many companies over the years

According to Steve’s LinkedIn profile, Sarowitz completed his higher studies from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Although he is known for being associated with Wayfarer Foundation for a long time, his journey started in 1996 at the Olsen Computer Systems/Paychex as Director of Sales and Marketing.

Steve Sarowitz also served as the board chairman of ChiCAT for almost two years. In 2013, he became the CEO of Blue Marble Payroll, which aims to change the international payroll process for different companies.

He has also been the founder and director of Paylocity since 1997.

He then established Wayfarer Studios with Justin Baldoni in 2019. Around two years later, a philanthropic branch of the company, Wayfarer Foundation, was launched, as per Today.

The bio of the foundation says that it “funds and supports” various non-profit organizations and aims to “create a more hopeful, joyful, and just world.”

As mentioned, Wayfarer Foundation announced its shutdown in May 2025, with a statement on social media.

Steve Warowitz wrote in the statement that he is proud of the organization’s impact on a lot of people and added:

“Upon unanimous decision of the board of directors, today we will begin the process of sunsetting the Foundation. We will honor all of our current grant commitments as we carefully wind down operations over the next several weeks.”

Steve Sarowitz added that although the foundation is shutting down, he will continue making contributions to society, and the company is also working to ensure that all the issues come to an end “with care and attention.”