David Schwarzbach Named CFO
Christine Barone to Join Board of Directors,
Replacing Mariam Naficy
Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP), the company that connects people with
great local businesses, today announced the appointments of David
Schwarzbach as Chief Financial Officer, effective February 14, and
Christine Barone, CEO of True Food Kitchen, to Yelp’s Board of
Directors, effective March 1.
“David brings a strong track record of driving results and
accelerating growth, and we are thrilled to welcome him to our
team,” said Jeremy Stoppelman, Co-Founder and Chief Executive
Officer of Yelp. “David played a key role in the growth of eBay’s
North America Marketplaces business to more than $30 billion in
Gross Merchandise Volume and we believe his experience with scaling
businesses will serve the company and our shareholders well. With
David’s appointment, we have a strong management team in place to
continue the execution of our strategy to drive revenue growth and
continued margin expansion.”
Mr. Schwarzbach joins Yelp from Optimizely, where he most
recently served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial
Officer. He is a seasoned finance expert who brings extensive
experience in driving growth at consumer data and marketplace
companies. He will be replacing James Miln, who has been serving as
interim CFO since September 2019. Mr. Miln will resume his role
leading Financial Planning and Analysis at Yelp.
“I am excited to step into the CFO role at Yelp to help the
company continue executing its strategic plan, accelerate growth
and deliver value to shareholders,” said Mr. Schwarzbach. “I look
forward to working with the entire Yelp team to build on the
company’s momentum and strong business fundamentals.”
Speaking to the appointment of Ms. Barone to the Board of
Directors, Diane Irvine, Chair of the Yelp Board said, “Christine
brings valuable and complementary skills and expertise to our
Board, and we are very excited to welcome her. With Restaurants a
critical category for Yelp, having the perspective and operating
experience of the CEO of a fast-growing restaurant brand will be
extremely beneficial. Christine also shares our commitment to
innovation and development, as well as delivering the highest
quality products and services to customers. On behalf of the Board,
I’d also like to thank Mariam for her years of service to Yelp; we
wish her well.”
Ms. Barone replaces Mariam Naficy, who stepped down after six
years as a Director of the Yelp Board, effective February 8. Ms.
Barone will serve as a member of the Nominating and Corporate
Governance Committee.
Ms. Barone said, “Yelp has staked out a key role in the
landscape of local business, including restaurants, and I look
forward to working with the talented members of the Yelp Board to
help the company create value for its customers and its
shareholders.”
Yelp today separately announced its fourth quarter and full year
2019 financial results and will host a conference call at 2:00 p.m.
Pacific Time (5:00 p.m. Eastern Time) to discuss the results.
About David Schwarzbach
Before joining Yelp, Mr. Schwarzbach served as Chief Operating
Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Optimizely, Inc., which
provides A/B testing tools and personalization capabilities for
websites, mobile apps and connected devices. He joined Optimizely
in 2015 from eBay, where he held senior finance positions including
Vice President and CFO for the North America marketplace. Prior to
eBay, Mr. Schwarzbach was the CFO of a cleantech startup in
Colorado and earlier served as an Executive Director in Morgan
Stanley’s Global Capital Markets division. Mr. Schwarzbach holds a
B.S. from the University of California, Davis and an MPA in
economics and public policy from Princeton University.
About Christine Barone
Christine Barone is the CEO of True Food Kitchen, an
award-winning seasonal kitchen and bar that has pioneered
health-driven dining. Ms. Barone has grown True Food to 33
restaurants across 14 states. Prior to True Food, Ms. Barone ran
the food business at Starbucks as Senior Vice President of Food,
Licensed Stores and Evenings, where she led the roll-out and launch
of La Boulange bakery offerings to over 12,000 Starbucks stores in
the U.S. and Canada. Prior to Starbucks, Ms. Barone spent ten years
leading multiple teams as a management consultant with Bain &
Company, where she advised leaders of retail, consumer and
technology businesses on strategy, marketing, organization and
operations. She began her career as an investment banker. Ms.
Barone graduated from Harvard University with a B.A. in applied
mathematics and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.
About Yelp
Yelp Inc. (www.yelp.com) connects people with great local
businesses. With unmatched local business information, photos and
review content, Yelp provides a one-stop local platform for
consumers to discover, connect and transact with local businesses
of all sizes by making it easy to request a quote, join a waitlist,
and make a reservation, appointment or purchase. Yelp was founded
in San Francisco in July 2004.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements relating
to, among other things, Yelp’s future performance, Yelp’s ability
to continue the execution of its strategy to drive revenue growth
and continued margin expansion, Mr. Schwarzbach’s ability to help
Yelp successfully execute is strategic plan, accelerate growth,
deliver more value to shareholders and build on Yelp’s momentum and
strong business fundamentals, and Ms. Barone’s ability to help Yelp
create more value for its customers and shareholders, that are
based on its current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that
involve risks and uncertainties.
Yelp’s actual results could differ materially from those
predicted or implied and reported results should not be considered
as an indication of future performance. Factors that could cause or
contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to,
Yelp’s:
- limited operating history in an evolving industry;
- ability to generate sufficient revenue to maintain
profitability, particularly in light of its significant ongoing
sales and marketing expenses;
- ability to generate and maintain sufficient high-quality
content from its users; and
- ability to maintain and expand its base of advertisers,
particularly as an increasing portion of advertisers have the
ability to cancel their advertising campaigns at any time.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200213005811/en/
Yelp Investor Relations Contact Kate Krieger
ir@yelp.com
Yelp Public Relations Contact Amy Sezak
press@yelp.com
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