Ryan Peterson, CEO and founder of Flexport Inc., stands for a photo at the company’s office in San Francisco, California, USA, on Wednesday, April 15, 2015.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Three weeks after Flexport founder Ryan Petersen fired Dave Clark as CEO and returned to lead his supply chain software startup, the company has fired its chief financial officer and its chief human resources officer has resigned, CNBC has learned.
Flexport CFO Kenny Wagers said last week that he was being fired, according to people familiar with the situation. His last day is Friday.
Stuart Leung, Flexport’s chief financial officer, is expected to be named CFO, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the matter. Leung worked at Flexport for seven years in various operations, logistics and finance roles and is considered a close confidant of Petersen.
Petersen, who founded Flexport a decade ago and turned it into a Silicon Valley darling valued at $8 billion by prominent investors, reclaimed the company’s top job on Sept. 6 after he and the board asked Clark to resign had forced. Clark, who spent 23 years at Amazon and became a top member of Jeff Bezos’ executive team, was hired by Petersen a year ago, in part to help the company pursue an initial public offering, sources said.
Clark and Petersen have served as co-CEOs of Flexport since last September, and Clark took over as the company’s sole CEO in March. Petersen became a venture partner at the Peter Thiel Founders Fund, one of Flexport’s largest backers.
According to the sources, Jennifer Boden, vice president of people tech and employee experience at Flexport, is also leaving the company. Boden took on the role earlier this month after her predecessor, Darcie Henry, was fired by Flexport.
A Flexport spokesman confirmed the staffing changes and said Michael Brown would take on a new role leading restructuring and CEO initiatives, but declined to comment on possible layoffs.
“Kenny Wagers has had a tremendous impact at Flexport and we are grateful for his contributions, which have made Flexport one of the fastest growing companies during his tenure. We wish Kenny all the best as he pursues his next opportunities. Stuart Leung will join Flexport as Chief Financial Officer and report to Ryan Petersen, CEO, effective immediately. Stuart has been with Flexport for nearly seven years and has held key leadership roles in finance, sales and operations. As CFO, he will focus on driving Flexport’s return to profitability and growth.
“Michael Brown will assume the role of SVP, Head of Restructuring and CEO Initiatives. In this newly created role, he will focus on transforming the business to make it more customer-centric and drive our return to profitability. Jennifer Boden will be leaving Flexport to pursue new opportunities. We thank Jennifer for her leadership and wish her all the best in her future endeavors.”
Petersen fired many of the executives Clark had recruited from Amazon, including Henry as well as Teresa Carlson, the company’s president; Tim Collins, who served as executive vice president of global operations; and Kelly Cheeseman, vice president and chief of staff.
Flexport launched in 2013 as a digitally-focused freight forwarding service provider and recently evolved into an end-to-end supply chain services company by acquiring fulfillment provider Deliverr from Shopify in May. In addition to Founders Fund, the company has also raised capital from Andreessen Horowitz and SoftBank.
While Flexport’s business thrived during the coronavirus e-commerce boom, it has been hit hard over the past year as global economic turmoil led to a dramatic drop in global freight movements.
In a series of posts on X, many of which were later deleted, Petersen publicly criticized Clark and his growth plans for the company. He said Flexport would withdraw 55 offer letters and seek to lease office space.
Before the Clark saga, executives had been working on an IPO timeline and were targeting a debut in 2025, according to an internal document seen by CNBC. Now the company is in cost-cutting mode and is expected to announce more layoffs in the coming weeks, the people said.
In January, Flexport laid off about 20% of the company’s workforce, or about 640 employees.
— CNBC’s Rohan Goswami contributed to this report.
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