More Changes to eBay's International Leadership Lineup
UPDATE 5-29-23
~18 months after leaving eBay to take on the CEO role at Providoor, Tim MacKinnon has found himself in the unenviable position of presiding over the company going out of business.
MacKinnon made an announcement about the closure in a post on LinkedIn last month
Yesterday was tough. A great idea, nurtured by a brilliant team, has finished mid-course. I’m gutted for our people, customers, restaurants and partners. Premium food at home is a huge opportunity, we just didn’t have the opportunity we thought we had to create it.
None of us let the risk of failure get in the way of having a crack at building something. In a short time, we built an amazing team, a production model for restaurants, same-day delivery, doubled brand awareness, built a new website and restaurant portal, launched in new cities and got great traction in new use cases such as entertaining and corporate catering. A big thanks to the amazing restaurants that backed a start-up with ambitions to change how they connected with customers. We sold over 1,000,000 meals, maintained an enviable NPS and delivered on our mission of making exceptional food experiences accessible.
It felt like a decade of business lessons compressed into a couple of years, from raising capital to unit economics (positive) and order value(high), frequency (not high enough), hiring (best team), reducing burn, selling a business (almost, we had agreed terms), and liquidating (and returning capital). It was never dull...
...I joined Providoor because great food experiences deepen human connection. You can’t take away people’s special memories of having Providoor with their loved ones. You also can’t take away the deep connections and friendships I have made over the last couple of years.
Will MacKinnon be returning to eBay? He doesn't give any clues as to his next stop on LinkedIn, but given eBay's history and fondness for "boomerang" rehires, it may not be out of the question.
After the quiet departure of SVP International Jay Lee in September, there are more changes on the horizon for eBay's international leadership team.
eBay Australia has appointed David Ramadge to Vice President and Managing Director.
Ramadge is a seasoned technology and business leader across e-commerce and other industries having re-joined eBay in December 2017 as Senior Director of Product and Shipping after nearly 10 years in Silicon Valley innovating at scale in large technology companies and building start-ups, including five years in eBay’s product and technology team.
According to the press release, "Ramadge takes over from Tim MacKinnon who had held the role of Managing Director since September 2017 after a 10 year stint at eBay."
In an announcement on the eBay Australia community forum. Neil Mackay Director, B2C eBay Australia said of McKinnon:
Tim MacKinnon is off to do something new and has been incredible at eBay. Over his 10 years, he’s led on some critical initiatives to maintain eBay’s market leading position. We thank Tim for his four years of unwavering commitment and leadership.
MacKinnon will be taking on the CEO position at Providoor, where he had been a part time Strategic Advisor since March 2021.
The announcement in the Australian community and PR release is certainly a departure from how eBay has handled other big personnel changes this year.
SVP International Jay Lee's departure was only noted in the company's 8-K filing with the SEC. His successor Joo Man Park was quietly added to the Our Leaders page just a few days ago, with no press release or big announcement as far as I have seen.
Liz Morton
VP Seller Experience Harry Temkin abruptly left the company back in June in a move that surprised and concerned many sellers.
Liz Morton
The only announcement of Harry's departure and acknowledgement of his service to the company came as a hastily thrown together last minute segment in the June Seller Check In.
That was the last public eBay appearance Harry made and presumably it was effective immediately or shortly thereafter. No formal announcement was made and no public explanation for the departure was ever offered.
While we're talking about changes to the leadership lineup, has anyone heard anything from Julie Loeger lately?
Julie came onboard in December 2020, stepping into a newly created role as Chief Growth Officer. This role was supposed to bring together Global Marketing & Global Customer Experience to focus on customer acquisition, retention and service after previous SVP Global Operations & Customer Service Wendy Jones stepped down.
She has not made any appearances at important events like eBay Open Online, monthly seller check ins or any other public facing events or initiatives that I have seen.
Aside from a photo op for eBay Main Street last month, Julie has been largely absent from the picture (pun intended).
Today, Julie Loeger, eBay SVP & Chief Growth Officer, had a chance to visit with eBay #SmallBiz sellers @FL_eBayStore and @simply_nutri in Washington, DC and greatly enjoyed discussing how they leverage eBay to grow their businesses. pic.twitter.com/1axhyLkwZG
— eBay Main Street (@ebaymainstreet) October 11, 2021
Julie's eBay bio states:
Julie Loeger leads eBay’s global customer experience and marketing teams. She is focused on customer acquisition, retention and service while also identifying new pathways for growth. Julie is known for her strategic leadership, unwavering focus on consumer-centric innovation and commitment to ongoing transformation efforts.
eBay cleverly doesn't go into too much detail about whether the "customer" here is buyers or sellers, but eBay hasn't been doing a great job at acquiring or retaining either one as of late.
Considering eBay's recent lackluster quarterly results showing a dip in active buyers for the second quarter in a row and flat lining seller numbers and a customer experience that by all effective measures continues to be less than "magical" - it would seem Julie might have some explaining to do.
Liz Morton
Liz Morton
