We discovered that there is actually no central place which provides a summary of the most important job moves in the tech industry. So, we decided to create one.
We have kept an eye out for every senior hire over the last quarter and below are the stand out appointments. Inevitably, we may have missed one or two, so be sure to respond with any particularly glaring omissions! Top Yahoo executive Jackie Reses is joining Square as a senior executive and will head up Square Capital. Reses has strong financial experience before her time at Yahoo, working at Apax Partners and Goldman Sachs. CEO Jack Dorsey said “Jackie’s understanding of the financial services industry and ger background in tech and investing make her the perfect fit to lead Square Capital and I’m thrilled she is joining our leadership team.” Reses rounds a team that Dorsey has been strengthening of late and is now one of several women in top jobs at Square. Vinod Khosla has stepped down as a director of Square as it prepares to go public. Khosla joined the board in 2011 but prefers “not to serve on the boards of directors of public companies.” He confirmed on Twitter “it has been a privilege to serve on Square’s board with @Jack. I look forward to remaining an advisor to him and his exceptional team.” Speaking of the man himself, Twitter finally named Jack Dorsey as full-time CEO after four months of holding the position of interim chief executive. Adam Bain, who was also another CEO candidate, was appointed COO after handling revenue and partnerships at Twitter. A new board is also in the works with Dick Costolo stepping down. Twitter also loses its Senior Director of Engineering, Growth and International Team to Uber. Akash Garg, who has held the role for four years, also pushed for the acquisition of ZipDial which brought with it a team that can grow Twitter internationally, but also Valerie Wagoner who is now a leader on the growth team. Garg says he feels “incredibly honoured and humbled to have worked with such a talented group” and is also “looking forward to this new adventure.” The Uber executive in charge of International expansion is leaving the company as part of a broader shake-up as it struggles with regulatory difficulties in Europe and funding raising in China. Niall Wass, Senior Vice President for EMEA and APAC, was seen as co-founders Travis Kalanick’s most senior executive outside the US. The move comes soon after the company underwent a major restructuring over the summer where various international business units were brought under a single global umbrella run from San Francisco – Wass was offered a new role reporting to Ryan Graves, Senior Vice President of Uber Global Operations, but declined the opportunity. After announcing earnings earlier this month, Tesla made a couple of executive announcements. Jason Wheeler joins as the new CFO. Wheeler comes from Google where he was VP of Finance and led its global finance function and says he is “so excited to join an amazing team dedicated to such a broad and inspiring mission.” Jon McNeill also joined as President of Global Sales and Service. Both hires will no doubt make an impact across finance, sales and service at the company. Software for supply chain management, Elementum, welcomes Peter Carlsson to its Advisory Board. Carlsson, former CPO and Head of Supply Chain at Tesla, will help to accelerate the growth of the world’s Product Graph, a digital mapping of the $25 trillion global product economy. With a wealth of experience and nearly two decades in the industry, Carlsson says “In supply chain, it's all about how fast you can act on information. Soon, it will be very dangerous to not have access to Elementum's platform.” Former VP Mobile at Uber, Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen, joins Balderton Capital as general partner. Fjeldsoe-Nielsen has held senior roles at some of the most successful fast-growth technology companies and has industry-leading experience in growing innovative businesses via mobile channels. His role will see him leading early-stage investments in new businesses. He says: “Mobile technology has changed the entrepreneurial ecosystem and levels of aspiration in Europe, which will lead to an explosion of successful European startups playing on a global scale.” Open Ocean also welcomes Richard Muirhead as London General Partner. The VC has investments in several London startups including LoopMe, Import.io and Tapdaq. Muirhead was also one of the first investors in Citymapper and Pusher, two successful London startups. He says “the technology sector in the UK has experienced extraordinary growth in recent years, formerly establishing the country and London in particular as the digital home of Europe.” The firm has also announced a new €100 million fund which will focus on Series A investments and some Series B in software companies. They have eyed digital media, fintech, marketplaces, health tech, developer tools and “major horizontals like CRM” as sectors they are likely to focus on. Scandinavian media giant Schibsted have been quietly building a global network of online marketplaces and has been relatively unknown to the European tech scene. Setting out to build it’s ‘Product and Technology’ division, Azeem Azhar joins as Director of Product Management. Azhar joins from PeerIndex, that was acquired by Brandwatch last year, and has a track record in helping to build companies. He says “marketplaces are going to form the basis of consumer experiences across many verticals over the coming years. Schibsted has an enviable global footprint from which to launch exceptional marketplace experiences for consumers around the world.” Spotify has named former Netflix finance chief Barry McCarthy as its new CFO. McCarthy, who took Netflix public in 2002 and subsequently resigned in 2010 currently serves on the board of Spotify. He will give up his seat in the transition to CFO. Media and Technology veteran Mickie Rosen joins Pandora Board of Directors. She joins Brian McAndrews, chairman, chief executive and president of Pandroa says Mickie’s experience is “invaluable.” Pandora are significantly expanding its vision and working to create a strong, vibrant industry for which Micke will be “instrumental” in bringing this to life. Paddy Power’s Managing Director of Retail for the UK and Ireland, Christian Woolfenden, will exit the company and join Lyst, a London based fashion startup. Woolfenden will return to his marketing roots – formerly Global Marketing Director at Paddy Power before his promotion to Managing Director – and will be Lyst’s first Chief Marketing Officer, overseeing all Global communications, organic acquisition, performance and brand marketing. He says “The team were smart enough to focus on the product and technology first and I am delighted to be joining at a time when marketing really becomes a focus globally.” Apple has also appointed James Bell, Boeing’s former chief financial officer to its board. Bell is also on the board of several other companies, including JPMorgan Chase & Co and Dow Chemical Co. This is Apple’s first hire for their board since Gap Inc’s former CEO Millard Drexler retired in March. Eventbrite’s Kevin Hartz is taking temporary medical leave while his co-founder and wife Julia Hartz will oversee the company along with two other execs. Battling a “non-life threatening medical condition” and declining to go into details, asking for privacy, he said “it’s been a challenge for a number of months but it’s the right thing to do and the right time to step out and get healthy.” In a memo to employees, he said he intends to return to the company in about six months. EA boss Mark Bradley will leave the industry and join ANKI, a consumer robotics company as Chief Revenue Officer. Speaking of his departure, he says the opportunity “fell into his lap” and will be leaving with a “heavy heart.” Nintendo has appointed Tatsumi Kimishima to take on the role of President, following the death of Satoru Iwata in July. Kimishima has previously been the company’s Managing Director and Head of Human Resources and had been CEO of the business’s American arm before these duties were taken on by Iwata in 2014. Alibaba founder and executive chairman Jack Ma has been appointed to Prime Minister David Cameron's Business Advisory Group (BAG). A Downing Street spokeswoman said “this is about appointing someone who has real business experience and understanding of the Chinese market.” Alibaba hires former Tesco executive Amee Chande as its first UK boss as the Chinese ecommerce giant expands its presence in Europe. Music streaming service Deezer has hired former Talk Talk Head of TV, Henrik Karlberg. The company completed its last round of funding back in 2012, raising £70 million and is planning a £194 million IPO to help it take on Spotify and Apple Music. CEO Hans-Holger Albrecht said “The IPO will allow us to accelerate our growth and continue to play a leading role.” In our 360 blog we're aiming to explore some of the important themes and topics relevant to any technology business as it scales, from leadership and management, to team building and talent development. But we thought we'd actually start by looking at a question we're getting asked every day, 'What's happening in the market, are we in another tech bubble that's about to burst?'
The truth is we don't know. No one does. The market has been running red hot for the past couple of years. Never before has the war for talent in the sector been so fierce, with battles being fought in every major tech hub around the world to retain and recruit the best executives. At another time we'll take a closer look at what this means for companies of all sizes and the steps they need to be taking if they aren't already, But back to the question at hand. We spent last week in San Francisco and the debate about 'Unicorn' sustainability and an ominous bubble continued to rumble on both sides of the Atlantic. Whether you’re cheering on the Andreessen Bulls or are a fan of the Gurley Bears it’s now impossible to ignore. Things are fundamentally different from the dot.com boom & bust and there’s little denying the later stage market has become distorted, but are things about to change? If you have let much of the chatter pass you by we have linked to a few of the more circulated viewpoints from the past few months: The Andreessen Bulls Mark Andreessen Benedict Evans Miguel Helft Sam Altman The Gurley Bears Bill Gurley Mike Moritz Mark Cuban The unease of later stage valuations is becoming increasingly clear. The last couple of years has seen frantic competition between funds fighting to get a piece of the action in later stage tech deals. Many have argued that it is some of the mutual funds with access to vast sums of capital that have largely been the root cause of the valuation inflation we see today, but we have started to see some of these same investors begin to mark down the valuation of their holdings which until recently have only been going one way. In recent times Fidelity shaved 25% of the value of their investment in Snapchat, BlackRock did something similar to Dropbox. Putting an accurate value on any private tech company is always tricky as there are lots of factors at play, but there does seem to be a change afoot. Public markets by comparison have remained on a more even keel.. Tech stocks haven't fared particularly well post-IPO in 2015, and late stage private tech companies that are overvalued today and plan to list on the public markets are going to be in for a bumpy ride. Square recently raised eyebrows by setting its IPO price at $9/share, down from the initial guide price set by its advisers ($11-13) and significantly lower that the valuation they achieved at their last funding round ($15+). In the event it appears to have been a sound strategy; Square's share price 'popped' in the first few days of trading and so it is being viewed as a success. The industry will be watching very closely how it continues to perform in the weeks and months ahead, but at the time of writing Square is valued at around $4.2bn, and not the $6bn valuation it achieved at its last private round. Fred Wilson wrote last month of the blurring lines between Private and Public markets, and this is certain to be a major talking point in the months ahead. Marc Benioff also warned of the dangers of staying private too long, and the important and unavoidable exercise companies have to go through in becoming public. So what can we can expect from the year ahead? Here's the 2016 outlook from two experienced VCs; Tomasz Tunguz of Redpoint and Mark Suster of Upfront The Tech industry is a cyclical beast and the 360 view is that a little heat needs to be released if the up cycle is to continue longer term. Whether it’s the Fed raising interest rates or a spectacular flame out of a later stage ‘darling’ that’s a trigger, we do expect a bruising correction for some in the year ahead rather than what others have predicted in a Hindenburg-esque disaster that’ll vaporize investors and set the industry back years like the last time around. |
A 360 view on the world of tech ArchivesCategories |