In a surprise announcement on Friday, Instacart president Carolyn Everson said that she will be resigning from her role at the online grocery giant effective at the end of this year.
Everson joined Instacart on Sept. 7 and leaves the company after just three months. She took over the role of president from Nilam Ganenthiran, who was named strategic advisor to the CEO, a newly created position.
“After careful consideration and discussion with [Instacart CEO] Fidji Simo, we’ve made the mutual decision to wind down my role at Instacart at the end of the year,” Everson (left) said in a Facebook post on Friday. “Fidji and I have been friends for over 10 years and we both agreed that this was the best decision for the company and for me personally. I believe in the company’s mission and the team, and am grateful for the opportunity to have contributed to Instacart’s growth. I intend to take time to dream up what’s next.”
“We’re grateful to Carolyn for her contributions to Instacart,” said Simo in a statement. “Her departure was a mutual decision and not one that we took lightly. We believe it’s the right decision for both the company and Carolyn based on our priorities and the role she was looking for at this point in her career. She’ll be staying on with us through the end of the year, and leaves as a friend to the company.”
Everson joined Instacart with 30 years of experience in leading global consumer technology teams, with a focus on global partnerships, business development and advertising platforms. As vice president of global marketing solutions at Facebook, she oversaw relationships with top advertisers and agencies and led a team focused on global partnerships and agencies, as well as Facebook’s Creative Shop. During her tenure at Facebook, she played a key role building and growing the company into the world’s second-largest digital ad platform, according to Instacart.
Before that, Everson served as corporate vice president of Microsoft’s global advertising sales and trade marketing teams, a role in which she led the technology giant’s advertising business across Bing, MSN, Windows Live, Mobile, Gaming, Atlas and the Microsoft Media Network. She also spent nearly seven years at Viacom’s MTV Networks, serving as chief operating officer and executive vice president of U.S. ad sales. Her career also includes vice president posts at Primedia and Zagat Survey, business development manager at Walt Disney Imagineering and analyst at Accenture.
In her Facebook post, Everson noted that she will be turning 50 next week will celebrate the occasion by spending time with family and “reflect on how incredibly blessed I am to have them and so many wonderful people in my life.” She added, “As for what’s next, my birthday present to myself is a real break while I dream up what’s next. Yes — this time, I will be taking time… I know our time is short on this Earth and I know I want to keep making a difference and keep focusing on enlightened leadership and the importance of building strong cultures for people to thrive personally and professionally.”
North America’s largest third-party online grocery platform, Instacart partners with more than 600 national, regional and local retailers and delivers from nearly 55,000 stores — about 20,000 added in the past year — across more than 5,500 cities. Its delivery service reaches 85% of U.S. households and 70% of Canadian households.
