Convoy hires former Expedia CEO as president and COO as digital freight startup tops 1k employees

Mark Okerstrom, the former Expedia Group CEO, will become Seattle startup Convoy’s president and COO. (Convoy Photo)

Mark Okerstrom is shifting from travel and tourism to trucking, looking to apply his digital commerce expertise to a new marketplace.

The former Expedia Group CEO, who left the travel giant in an executive shakeup last year, is joining Convoy as the fast-growing Seattle startup’s new president and chief operating officer. Okerstrom will oversee Convoy’s finance, operations, marketing, supply and marketplace growth teams, working alongside  CEO and co-founder Dan Lewis.

The announcement comes as Convoy tops 1,000 employees, five years after it was founded by Lewis and CTO Grant Goodale. The company’s digital network is like ride-sharing for freight, matching shippers with truck drivers that have available space. Convoy is one of a handful of privately-held companies in the Seattle region valued at more than $1 billion, raising $400 million at a $2.7 billion valuation in September.

Convoy CEO Dan Lewis. (GeekWire Photo)

In an interview with GeekWire, Okerstrom said he first learned about Convoy early in the company’s history, when he was Expedia’s chief financial officer, sitting in the C-suite next to then-Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Now the CEO of Uber, Khosrowshahi was an early Convoy investor.

That history is very relevant now: Uber competes with Convoy through its Uber Freight business, so much that Khosrowshahi divested his stake in Convoy after he joined Uber, to avoid a conflict of interest. Uber listed Convoy among its competitors, along with Amazon.

“I first started tracking Conroy shortly after it started, because Dara was an investor,” Okerstrom said. “He sat right beside me, and so we would always talk about investments, investment ideas. And so I was super intrigued about what they were doing.”

Convoy has raised $668 million over its lifetime from investors including Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates; Amazon founder Jeff Bezos; Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff; Code.org founders Hadi and Ali Partovi; former Starbucks president Howard Behar; U2’s Bono and The Edge; among others.

Expedia Group chairman Barry Diller, center, speaks with Dara Khosrowshahi and Mark Okerstrom during a 2016 event. (GeekWire File Photo / Todd Bishop)

Another Convoy investor is also familiar to Okerstrom: Barry Diller, the Expedia Group chairman, who cited a disagreement over strategy and disappointing financial results for the abrupt departures Okerstrom and CFO Alan Pickerill in December. That was before the pandemic threw the travel market into a tailspin.

After Okerstrom’s departure from Expedia, he was contemplating his next steps when Lewis contacted him.

“Dan just reached out at the right time; I had the background on the business. I hadn’t worked in an earlier stage company before. And yet there were so many interesting parallels between what we had done at Expedia and the opportunity ahead of Convoy. … I just said, ‘I just can’t pass this up. It’s gonna be a blast.’ ”

Okerstrom said he was also drawn by the environmental benefits of creating new efficiencies in shipping.

At some companies, hiring someone with experience as a public company CEO would foreshadow an initial public offering, but Lewis downplayed that notion.

“I don’t think that’s the primary driver here,” Lewis said in response to the IPO question. “If you were to listen in on our leadership team discussions, that’s not the thing that we’re spending our time thinking about right now. It’s how do we build the best business and continue to serve customers in new ways.”

They are spending time on expansion into new lines of business. Lewis pointed to Convoy’s recent launch of a payment service and fuel card for carriers as early examples of the types of programs and initiatives the company looking to roll out. The idea, Lewis said, is to “really think about trucking across multiple modes, but then also start to think about, how do we make the supply chain more efficient in all the places that overlap and interact with trucking.”

Lewis said the company has found in Okerstrom “somebody that can help us think about what that future looks like … across multiple businesses, really expanding to serve our customers.”

The pandemic has been a roller-coaster for Convoy, causing wild volatility in supply chains. The company says it saw demand for trucking surge in March and plunge in April, before rebounding to levels now approaching all-time highs.

The company cut a handful of positions early in the economic downturn, primarily in recruiting, after it reduced its number of open roles for the year. However, Convoy continues to add employees, and it is seeking to fill open roles.

For the record, Okerstrom hasn’t worked in trucking before, but he points out that his wife’s uncles are truck drivers in his native Canada, just in case that does anything to burnish his industry credentials.

If and when Convoy expands there, he said, “I’ll be a family celebrity.”

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Tech Moves: Zillow hires NYC leader; ex-Airbnb president joins Tapas Capital; Big Fish exec returns to EA; Slalom’s first CMO; and more

Caroline Burton (left) and Matt Daimler. (Zillow Photos)

— Seattle-based Zillow Group announced leadership changes on its marketing team and in its New York office. Matt Daimler is now senior vice president of product. He was most recently general manager of StreetEasy, the New York real estate site Zillow acquired in 2013, and of Zillow Group NYC. He will be succeeded by 6-year Zillow veteran Caroline Burton.

Additionally, Zillow hired Ravi Kandikonda as SVP of integrated marketing. Most recently SVP of marketing at Comcast, Kandikonda will report to CMO Aimee Johnson.

— Bellevue, Wash.-based mobile marketplace OfferUp hired Amazon Web Services and Real Networks veteran Michael Eggers as its chief financial officer. Read the story.

— Former Big Fish Games Managing Director and President Jeff Karp returned to Electronic Arts as senior vice president of mobile games. Karp joined Seattle-based Big Fish Games in 2018. He previously led youth-sports platform Sports Illustrated Play, which was acquired by Comcast/NBC, and was an exec at social gaming pioneer Zynga. This is Karp’s third stint at Electronic Arts.

Greg Greeley. (Tapas Capital Photo)

— Former Airbnb President Greg Greeley joined Bellevue, Wash.-based Tapas Capital as a venture advisor. Greeley was at Amazon for more than 18 years. Before departing in 2018, he was vice president of Amazon Prime and delivery experience.

“I’m really excited to be joining the firm as an advisor and having the opportunity to roll up my sleeves alongside Tapas’ founders on their journey of building cool, customer-centric and highly scalable products,” said Greeley.

Tapas Capital is an early-stage technology venture firm currently raising its second venture fund. To date, the firm has invested in Pacific Northwest startups Avocor, Bamboo Learning, Give InKind, RevelHMI and Vega Cloud.

— Suchi Srinivasan is now vice president of corporate strategy for Dell Technologies. She was most recently an associate partner at McKinsey and Company. Srinivasan co-founded Watts at Work, an energy analytics service, and was a director of business development at Microsoft. She is based in Seattle.

Sangeeta Prasad. (Slalom Photo)

— Seattle management consultancy Slalom appointed Sangeeta Prasad as its first global chief marketing officer. Prasad was most recently CMO for New York-based Russell Reynolds Associates, a leadership advisory and search firm.

She spent more than a decade as a senior vice president at JPMorgan Chase and also worked for American Express and Proctor and Gamble. Prasad will relocate to Seattle and be part of Slalom’s leadership team.

— Amazon-owned Audible’s new chief content officer Brad Schwartz departed after a month. Bloomberg reported that the exit comes after a dismissed sexual-harassment lawsuit naming Schwartz came to light. Schwartz was previously president of Pop Media Group, the defendant in the lawsuit.

— Former Amazon executive Peter Faricy has departed Discovery after joining the TV firm as CEO of direct-to-consumer in September 2018. Faircy was responsible for the media company’s new streaming service which has not yet launched, The Information reported. A vice president at Amazon, Faricy led the Amazon Marketplace and spent more than 12 years at the tech giant.

Bhavana Mathur. (Ekata Photo)

— Seattle-based Ekata hired Bhavana Mathur as its vice president of product. Ekata spun out of Whitepages last year and sells enterprise identify verification products.

Mathur was most recently VP of product management at Tune, a Seattle mobile and marketing analytics startup that was recently acquired by Canadian tech company Constellation Software. Prior to Tune, Mathur held product management roles at Apptio, Vertafore and Expedia Group.

— Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) announced that Paula Rosput Reynolds will take over as chair of the board. Reynolds is currently CEO of Preferwest and joined SCCA’s board in 2018. She takes over from Karen Glover.

Reynolds is a past chair of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center’s board of trustees and also serves on the board of directors for General Electric, BP and BAE Systems. She is the former CEO of Safeco Insurance and energy services companies AGL Resources and Duke Energy.

Lisa Nelson. (Microsoft Photo)

— Co-founder and former managing director of Microsoft’s venture fund M12 Lisa Nelson is now an advisor to Flying Fish Partners, a Seattle-based venture capital firm.

Nelson is a strategic advisor for Nelsoli Ventures, a member of the board for Seattle startup Tribute, and also an advisor for New Zealand VC firm Movac.

— Another Microsoft alum, Carter Rabasa, joined the advisory board of Tribute, a digital mentorship platform. Rabasa is currently CEO and founder of Fizbuz, a networking site for developers. He is an investor, lead organizer of the CascadiaJS conference, and former product manager at Twilio.

Chris Petersen. (University of Washington Photo)

— Chris Petersen, the former head coach of the University of Washington football team, was named Fritzky Chair in Leadership at UW’s Foster School of Business for the 2020-2021 academic year. The faculty position, established in 2002, brings distinguished leaders to campus.

“I have always been passionate about leadership, team building and human performance and am looking forward to facilitating a collaboration between business and sport leaders,” said Petersen.

Petersen’s surprise retirement from coaching last year offered lessons about work and life, especially for anybody in high-stress work. He is known for his “Built for Life” coaching philosophy.

— First Mode, a Seattle engineering firm founded by veterans of the Planetary Resources asteroid mining venture, added eight new team members. The new hires include VP of Marketing and Communications Colleen Rubart and its first industrial designer Kurt Fischer.

Rubart was most recently director of marketing and communications for Trait Biosciences, based in Santa Fe, N.M. Fischer was previously director of industrial design and UX at high-tech football helmet maker Vicis, which shuttered last year and sold its assets to an investment firm.

See all the recent hires, including an alum from Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture.

Kurt Bilafer. (Banzai Photo)

— Seattle-based event marketing automation provider Banzai appointed Kurt Bilafer as chief revenue officer. Bilafer is an investor in the company and previously served as an advisor. He advises several other startups, including Tribute, is a fund manager for Seattle Angel Conference, and held executive roles WePay, Amazon, and SAP.

— Health tech startup Medcurity hired Matt Bayley as its chief security information officer. He joins the Spokane, Wash.-based company from medical IT service provider Engage.

Medcurity also announced a $500,000 investment from early-stage investment firm SeaChange following a $200,000 funding round in May. The new funding is already being used to expand sales and marketing efforts with the addition of Arielle Van Peursem and James Parrish as sales executives.

— Seattle startup Mason, which offers “mobile infrastructure as a service” tech, expanded its executive team:

• Merlin Love as head of sales. Love was most recently VP of sales and marketing at Berkeley, Calif.-based 3D Robotics. He is based in California.

• Minh-Duc Nguyen as head of quality. Nguyen was most recently head of product quality for fitness startup Tonal. He is based in California.

• Sophia Bianchi as head of people. Bianchi has led recruiting efforts at Redfin, Uber, Amazon, Sonos and Facebook. She is based in Seattle.

• Carl Franzetti as head of operations. Franzetti most recently was director of supply chain operations for clinical software maker YPrime. He is based in Pennsylvania.

— Former Spokane, Wash. mayor David Condon joined the board of Spokane startup Oddjobbers. Condon is currently the vice president for Eastern Washington at Premera Blue Cross.

Founded by recent Gonzaga University graduates, Oddjobbers is a platform for college students to connect with residents and businesses for jobs including lawn mowing, moving or graphic design. The company has raised $310,000 from investors including Condon and angel investor Tom Simpson, who is also a member of the board.

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OfferUp hires Amazon Web Services and RealNetworks veteran Michael Eggers as CFO

Longtime tech executive Michael Eggers has joined OfferUp as its new chief financial officer.

Eggers spent 15 years at RealNetworks, including a 6-year stint as CFO. He left to join Amazon, where he was most recently head of global sales and business operations at Amazon Web Services for the past five years.

He’ll now lead the finance team at OfferUp, the Bellevue, Wash.-based mobile marketplace startup that has 20 million monthly active users.

“OfferUp is a great company with an incredible employee culture, and few companies have been able to build such a large and loyal user base,” Eggers said in a statement. “The opportunity to help the company scale even more as a top local marketplace is incredibly enticing.”

OfferUp, ranked No. 10 on the GeekWire 200 list of top Pacific Northwest startups, recently raised a $120 million funding round and acquired its rival Letgo. Total funding to date for the 9-year-old company is $380 million.

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