Instacart hires former Facebook director Carolyn Everson

The Instacart grocery delivery app said on Wednesday it had nabbed another former Facebook executive: Carolyn Everson, longtime Facebook ads manager, who left the company in June. Everson moved to Instacart just weeks after Fiji Simo, former head of the Facebook app, took over as CEO.

Instacart is the largest of the remaining private delivery companies, but faces competition from growing delivery business from Uber as well as upstart companies like GoPuff. It was valued at $ 39 billion in a funding round in March and is expected to be released next year.

Everson will join Instacart on September 7 in the role of chairman, succeeding current chairman Nilam Ganenthiran, who will become strategic advisor to the CEO. Everson will oversee multiple divisions, including advertising, partnerships, policy and law, Instacart said.

Everson spent over 10 years at Facebook where she was the face of the company for major advertisers as vice president of its global business group.

In an interview with CNBC’s “TechCheck” on Wednesday, Simo explained why Instacart is becoming so attractive to top Facebook talent. She said the company had recruited “an equal number” of workers from Facebook, Google and Amazon.

“I think it’s really important to talk not only about diversity of gender and race, but also about diversity of thought, so it’s really important for us to attract people from very different companies who have very different backgrounds. different, ”said Simo. “And I think you know that Carolyn and I were so excited after 10 years at Facebook to join Instacart, it is a testament to the strength of the business and the opportunities Instacart has ahead of it.”

Facebook chief diversity officer Maxine Williams said in July that Simo and Everson’s departures were not such a bad thing as they were in high-level leadership roles elsewhere.

Instacart said that with the addition of Everson, 55% of its management team are now women.