Dado Ruvic/Reuters
The C-suite at Shopify Inc. SHOP-T is being shaken up again for the second time in less than a month.
Bobby Morrison, Shopify’s chief revenue officer of more than three years, said in a social-media post that he is leaving the company, writing “today marks the close of an extraordinary chapter.”
“Unlike most companies whose revenue slows as they scale, we accelerated,” he said in a post on LinkedIn on Thursday, adding that in recent years the company’s use of artificial intelligence has reshaped its culture and the way it brings new products to market.
Meanwhile, Shopify’s general counsel, Jess Hertz, said in a post to LinkedIn on Thursday that she is stepping in to the role of chief operating officer. Ms. Hertz first joined the company four years ago.
“My operating system as COO: make the work visible, shorten feedback loops, deliver in smaller increments, own outcomes end-to-end. When the work is visible, ownership is clean, and defaults are sharp, winning is the side effect,” she wrote.
Shopify chief operating officer is leaving the company to join Opendoor Technologies
Prior to working at Shopify, Ms. Hertz served in Washington as White House Staff Secretary in 2021 and general counsel to the Biden-Harris transition team in 2020, and as a director and associate general counsel at Meta focused on regulatory and government affairs.
The COO role at Shopify was previously filled by Kaz Nejatian, who spent six years in various roles at the company before leaving on Sept. 10 to become chief executive officer of San Francisco-based real estate company Opendoor Technologies Inc.
“Jess has spent four years deeply understanding our business and rewiring how we operate, building systems in legal, talent, and across the company that scale. She thinks from first principles, ships smart fixes, and combines public sector and technology experience with proven execution,” said Shopify spokesperson Ben McConaghy in an e-mail.
The company did not comment on Mr. Morrison’s departure.
Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Ken Wong said that Mr. Morrison was instrumental in leading Shopify’s strategic shift upmarket, including the push into the enterprise segment.
“We expect a mild negative reaction on concerns of potential enterprise execution risk into the always-important holiday season with this ‘brain drain.’ We do not view the executive drain as a signal of internal disarray, but rather of the recent success of the organization,” he said in a note to investors Thursday.
The company’s stock was down 1 per cent on the Toronto Stock Exchange at market close on Thursday.