American gig economy giants Uber and Instacart have recently elevated the Canadian executives in their ranks to higher leadership positions.
Grocery delivery app Instacart announced last week that chief business officer Chris Rogers has been chosen to replace outgoing CEO Fidji Simo, who is leaving the company to join OpenAI. Rogers has been with Instacart for six years, most recently as its Chief Business Officer.
Rogers graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont., and started his career at consumer packaged goods brand Procter and Gamble, where he led relationships with Canada’s largest national grocery retailers, according to Instacart.
Rogers joined Instacart following an 11-year stint at Apple, where he started by leading the tech giant’s Canadian carrier channel and consumer retail business before being chosen as the managing director for Apple Canada.
“There isn’t a single thing we’ve done in the last few years that Chris hasn’t had his fingerprints on,” outgoing CEO Simo said in a LinkedIn post. “From our retail enablement strategy and omnichannel expansion to the massive growth and evolution of our advertising platform, Chris has been a driving force behind all of these initiatives.”
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In a blog post, Rogers said that Instacart’s vision and strategy aren’t changing under his watch, and that the company remains focused on “building the technologies to power every grocery transaction, online and in-store.” Rogers will take on the new role, and also join Instacart’s board of directors, on August 15.
Ridesharing and takeout delivery app Uber promoted its Toronto-based senior vice president of mobility and business operations, Andrew Macdonald, to president and COO. Macdonald, known as “Mac,” is Uber’s first COO since 2019 and will report to CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.
Macdonald will relocate from Toronto to New York in September to accommodate his new role, according to Bloomberg.
According to a filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission this week, Macdonald will now be responsible for Uber’s global Mobility, Delivery, and Autonomous businesses, as well as cross-platform functions like membership, customer support, and safety. The appointment coincides with the departure of Uber’s senior vice president of delivery, Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty.
“There is no one better suited to seize this opportunity than Mac,” Khosrowshahi said in the filing. “From launching our Toronto operations 13 years ago, to scaling our Mobility business, to spearheading our Autonomous strategy, Mac has proven himself as a highly effective leader at Uber.”
Feature image courtesy Instacart.