The executive ranks at ride-hailing company Lyft have undergone a big change with the departure and arrival of two top executives.
Raj Kapoor, from Mayfield Fund, has joined Lyft in the new position of chief strategy officer. Melissa Waters, formerly Pandora’s vice preside of brand and product marketing, is taking over as head of marketing. Kira Wampler, Lyft’s chief marketing officer, is leaving the company to become CEO of Art.com She was previously as Trulia before she joined the ride-hailing company in 2014.
On Thursday, tech news site Recode reported the news, which a Lyft confirmed to Coins2Day.
“We’re excited for Raj and Melissa to join our executive team as we drive forward our next chapter of growth and scale,” a Lyft spokeswoman told Coins2Day in a statement. “Raj brings exceptional experience and energy to our overall strategy, and Melissa will take our brand and marketing results to the next level.”
Also departing is Brandon McCormick, who headed PR and communications for the company, and plans to take some time off. Previously, McCormick was a director of global communications at Facebook and headed communications for WhatsApp, which Facebook acquired in early 2014. Lyft’s Sheila Bryson will step in as interim communications chief.
According to the company, it knew of Wampler’s plans for quite some time, so it recently hired Waters as part of the transition. However, she’s the company’s vice president of marketing, not its new CMO.
Lyft’s main rival, Uber, also recently added some marketing power to its top ranks. In August, it announced the hiring of Jeff Jones, Target’s then-CMO, as its new president of ride-sharing.
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Kapoor has spent the last several years in and out of entrepreneurship. He led Lyft’s Series A funding round in 2011 and was on the company’s board until 2014. Most recently, he co-founded and headed Fitmob, a subscription service for fitness class, which was acquired by competitor ClassPass last year.
