TaskRabbit's CEO, one of tech's few Black female executives, is stepping down

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TaskRabbit's CEO, one of tech's few Black female executives, is stepping down
TaskRabbit CEO Stacy Brown-PhilpotFortune Brainstorm Tech
  • In a New York Times story published Tuesday, the CEO of TaskRabbit, Stacy Brown-Philpot, said she would be stepping down from her position.
  • Brown-Philpot is one of the few Black women serving in positions of leadership in Silicon Valley.
  • She joined TaskRabbit in 2016, oversaw its sale to Ikea, and will stay on with the company until August to allow leadership time to find a successor.
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One of the few Black female CEOs in Silicon Valley is stepping down from her position at freelance-marketplace TaskRabbit.

Stacy Brown-Philpot is stepping down as TaskRabbit's CEO, she revealed in an interview with the New York Times published Tuesday. Brown-Philpot was named CEO in 2016, and will stay on at TaskRabbit through August so the company can find a successor.

Brown-Philpot said the company has been preparing for her departure "for months," and that she has not decided on her next move.

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"It's really hard to decide what you're going to do next when you're so focused on what you're doing right now," Brown-Philpot said.

Brown-Philpot is one of the few Black women leaders in the tech industry. She also told the Times that Silicon Valley still has a "long way to go" to ensure Black people are adequately represented in the industry. In an interview with the Times back in 2018, Brown-Philpot shared that she's discriminated against "all the time," and people often didn't believe she served as CEO at a tech company.

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Her appointment as CEO in 2016 was celebrated among advocates for diversity in tech. As CEO, Brown-Philpot oversaw Ikea's acquisition of TaskRabbot in 2017, and led the company through this year's pandemic. She also championed diversity at the company: In 2019, 60% of leadership were women, and 48% of employees identified as people of color.

Beyond TaskRabbit, Brown-Philpot serves of the board of directors for HP Inc. and Nordstrom. Prior to joining TaskRabbit as its chief operating officer in 2013, she worked for Google in India for nearly a decade. While at Google, she founded the company's employee resource group for Black employees.

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