More than nine months after the sudden departure of Canva’s chief financial officer, after nearly 8 years, the graphic design giant has found his replacement with Zoom’s Texas-based CFO, Kelly Steckelberg, signing on later this month.
Steckelberg took Zoom to its public listing on the Nasdaq in 2019. She was previously CEO of online dating site Zoosk and senior director in consumer finance at Cisco. Her first day at Canva is November 26.
Canva is looking to list in the US, but cofounder and COO Cliff Obrecht has yet to detail a timeline for the float, telling The Information that he preferred to keep the tech company private in the near term as it invests in artificial intelligence and corporate sales without the increased scrutiny of public markets.
The hunt for a new CFO began in February following the sudden departure of Damien Singh after nearly eight years in the role.
“We’re now at a pivotal point going into our next decade where we now need to build on our foundations to operate as a truly public ready company,” Singh told staff in an email on February 5, adding that “today marks my last day at Canva,”
But at the time Capital Brief reported that Singh resigned amid “an internal investigation into allegations made against him”.
Startup Daily does not suggest any allegations were true, only that they were made.
Canva issued a statement at the time saying that “We have a zero-tolerance policy for inappropriate behaviour and we’re fully committed to thoroughly investigating and actioning any instances of this”.
While at Zoom, and just ahead of its IPO, Steckelberg had to deal with her own HR issues after an anonymous source reported to the company that said she had an “undisclosed, consensual relationship” at a previous employer.
Zoom’s board investigated the matter. It led founder and CEO Eric Yuan to write an open letter saying: “Kelly expressed regret for what transpired at her former employer, took ownership for the situation, and made clear to us that she had learned valuable lessons from the experience.”
Yuan went on to praise Steckelberg as “an incredible contributor, as well as a model steward of our culture, values, and high standards since joining the Company”.
She went on to lead Zoom to its IPO in April 2019, raising US$356.8 million at $36 a share. On its first day of trade they popped 72% to $66, valuing the business at US$15.9 billion.
Five years on, Zoom, which in the early stages of the global pandemic in 2020 saw its share price soar to US$559, the company is worth US$24.3 billion.
Her appointment comes as Canva says its active monthly users have grown by another 10% in the last month to 220 million.
Annualised revenue hit US$2.5 billion, but while the company likes to brag that it’s been “profitable for the seventh consecutive year”, it’s worth noting that in FY2023, ATO data revealed that Canva paid no corporate income tax on $1.4 billion in revenue and $69.9 million in taxable income.
Last month super fund Hostplus offloaded an undisclosed amount of its stake in Canva in a secondary market sale that led the company to boast that its valuation had risen by 23% to $49 billion.
Obrecht welcomed Steckelberg to Canva saying: “Kelly’s impressive track record as a strong leader and strategic thinker, combined with her proven expertise in scaling enterprise companies, makes her the perfect addition to our leadership bench.”
The incoming CFO praised the passion, creativity, innovation and remarkable growth of the Canva team as “the hallmark of a truly generational company”.
“I’ve been an admirer of the team, product and mission for a number of years now and I’m eager to have the opportunity to work alongside Melanie, Cliff, Cameron and the team,” she said.
She will be based in Austin, Texas.
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