A year and a half after private equity firm Thoma Bravo acquired Stamps.com for $6.6 billion and renamed it Auctane, the shipping software firm has a different management team with an outsider at the top, and some major changes may be in the works.
Auctane announced today that Albert Ko will become its new CEO, succeeding Nathan Jones who had led the transition after the 2021 acquisition.
Auctane owns a suite of overlapping solutions used by shippers and online merchants, including ShipStation, Stamps.com, ShippingEasy, ShipEngine, ShipWorks, Metapack, Packlink, Shipsi, Global Post, and Endicia. No longer publicly traded and with the new team in place, consolidation of its numerous brands is on the table – and with growth a primary focus, that may not exclude the possibility of further acquisitions.
Ko will become CEO effective June 12, 2023, joining other new executives including Chief Financial Officer Amit Deodhar (ex-Amazon and Expedia), and Chief Marketing Officer Lisa Johnston (ex-IBM), both of whom joined Auctane last year.
Executive departures this year included Bryan Jones, Auctane’s Chief Operating Officer, who was named CEO of LINQ this month; Steve Rifai, Auctane General Manager, who left earlier this year to launch his own consulting firm; and Robert Gilbreath, Vice President and General Manager of ShipStation.
Auctane Chief Strategy Officer Amine Khechfe told EcommerceBytes the company had looked for a CEO with a proven record of growth who could take Auctane to the next level. He seemed particularly impressed with Ko’s performance at Intuit where Ko spent 13 years before becoming CEO of the Zelle Payments Network, owned by Early Warning Services LLC.
Auctane said in Wednesday’s announcement that Ko was passionate about helping businesses save time and money by simplifying complex tasks.
Ko was quoted, “Auctane has been on the forefront of innovation in shipping change since its inception. I look forward to joining a team of passionate innovators dedicated to bringing solutions to merchants around the world to help grow their businesses.”
Gene Austin, Chairman of Auctane’s Board of Directors said “Al has deep expertise in bringing organizations together to achieve large-scale growth and transformational change. His proven track record of empowering employees around a shared vision will serve Auctane well as we accelerate momentum across our portfolio of brands.”
Holden Spaht, a Managing Partner at Thoma Bravo, was also quoted. “With extensive experience delivering product innovation and operational excellence at large-scale organizations, Al will help Auctane usher in a new stage of growth. Under his leadership, Auctane will continue to drive innovation in the expanding ecommerce shipping market, where increasing expectations around shipping speed, complexity and globalization present enormous opportunity.”
