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TaskRabbit founder steps down as CEO

April 15, 2016

TaskRabbit founder Leah Busque stepped down as CEO, but she will remain with the human cloud firm company in the role of executive chairwoman. The move was effective Thursday; the San Francisco-based company allows consumers to contract out individual tasks online.

Former Chief Operations Officer Stacy Brown-Philpot has taken on the role of CEO. In addition, TaskRabbit promoted Ian Arthurs, VP of marketplace operations, to the COO position.

Busque announced the changes in a blog post on Medium earlier this week.

“I’ll still be in the office every week and also doing a lot of traveling on behalf of the company,” Busque wrote in the blog post. “I will remain on the board taking a leadership role advocating externally with investors and strategic partners, and providing guidance on high-level business decisions such as partner and expansion opportunities. I’m looking forward to freeing up my time once again to focus on the long-term future of the business, while also pursuing other passion projects I have developed personally.”

Busque had stepped down as CEO before in 2011 when she took on the role of chief product officer, according to TechCrunch. She later took back the CEO title in 2012.

Brown-Philpot, COO of TaskRabbit for three years, previously spent nearly a decade at Google heading online sales and operations. In 2015, she was appointed to the HP Inc. board of directors.

“Since she joined three years ago, we’ve more than doubled revenue every year, added operations in 10 additional markets (including our first international market in London) and helped Taskers increase their earnings by more than 200%,” Busque wrote. “Her reputation is well-deserved. I’m sure she will have more to say in the coming weeks and months. Expect big things.”

Brown-Philpot is also now one of the few black women to lead a Bay Area tech company, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Busque, who is expecting her second child, said she has been planning the change for a long time.

“First and foremost, this is about my functional role at the company, and where I am excited about contributing going forward,” she wrote.