eBay UK Operations Completes Leadership Transition
eBay UK operations leadership changes have been finalized as Chief Operating Officer at eBay UK Cristian van Tienhoven officially departs the company.
Van Tienhoven announced the news in a post on LinkedIn, saying his goodbyes to the eBay team.
Cristian van Tienhoven
I am leaving after two and half great years at eBay UK and have something new starting on 29 January (watch this space!)
I want to take this time to thank all my now ex-colleagues. They are incredibly dedicated to serve the millions of buyers and sellers who use eBay globally. I want to extend my warm thanks to Eve Williams and Murray Lambell for their leadership, support, guidance, counsel and mentorship.
I wish eBay all the best!
Previously, van Tienhoven has an 8+ year tenure at Amazon before joining eBay UK in September 2021.
His tenure at eBay was particularly short, especially considering it appears this transition was many months in the making.
His replacement, Sholto Mee, shows he was promoted from Senior Director Global Service Strategy and Transformation to COO, eBay UK in May 2023, which raises many questions about why van Tienhoven may have decided to leave and why it would take ~8 months to make the departure official.
Mee also continues to serve on the board of eBay Commerce UK, handling all of eBay's payments business for the region.
Given the timing of Mee's promotion, this may have been part of a larger leadership shuffle that took place at eBay UK last year with previous UK General Manager, Murray Lambell, moving over to Global General Manager of Home, Garden & Refurbished and Eve Williams, who was previously UK Chief Marketing Officer, moving in to take over the UK GM role.
Liz Morton
The move appears to be part of a growing trend with eBay consolidating key leadership positions observed in the last 2 years.
For example, Head of Europe Rob Hattrell and SVP International Joo Man Park both departed the company in 2022, with their roles being combined into one big promotion for Jordan Sweetnam, who is now SVP Global Markets.
eBay also promoted Adrian Fung to Global Chief Marketing Officer in 2022, leaving questions about what would happen to North America CMO Andrea Stairs, then UK CMO Eve Williams, and Australia CMO Amrita Blickstead.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
Blickstead is no longer with the company, Andrea Stairs was initially named VP Transformation Office from November 2022 to March 2023 and is now VP International Markets, Cross-border Trade, Regulatory & Operational Excellence and Eve Williams is now General Manager UK.
