Former Microsoft executive Mikhail Parakhin is departing as CTO of Ottawa-based retail technology giant Shopify after just over two years in the role, BetaKit has confirmed.
The news: An anonymous X post from Saturday was the first to indicate Parakhin’s departure. BetaKit has since confirmed with Shopify that Parakhin is leaving that position and transitioning to an advisor.
Shopify did not disclose when or why Parakhin is departing, or share any other details regarding this move. BetaKit has also reached out to Parakhin for comment, but he had not responded by publication time.
From the source: “Mikhail has left an indelible mark on the company and has helped us level up in engineering and machine learning [ML],” a Shopify spokesperson told BetaKit over email. “As he leaves, we’re grateful for his contributions and glad that he’ll continue as an advisor.”
The context: Parakhin previously served as CTO of Moscow-based tech firm Yandex, and held senior executive roles at American tech giant Microsoft, including CEO of advertising and web services. Shopify brought on the Russian-trained physicist-turned-ML engineer as CTO in late 2024 for his deep expertise in AI. In that role, he took over for Allan Leinwand, who stepped down in early 2023 for “personal reasons.”
Final thought: Under Parakhin’s leadership, Shopify has invested heavily in building AI for merchants and deploying the tech internally to improve its efficiency and expedite product development. Parakhin’s LinkedIn profile, which is not yet updated, lists his focus as “bringing AI into the shopping space.” Parakhin appeared in an ad for OpenAI’s Codex just last week, highlighting how he was using the agentic tool at Shopify. Time Magazine recently named him one of its tech executives of the year for his work rebuilding the commerce platform for the age of AI. It is not yet clear what Parakhin plans to do next or who, if anyone, will replace him in Shopify’s CTO chair.
Disclosure: BetaKit majority owner Good Future is the family office of two former Shopify leaders, Arati Sharma and Satish Kanwar.
Feature image courtesy Shopify.