Chris Rogers will become CEO of the grocery delivery platform Aug. 15, according to a Wednesday (May 28) press release. He replaces Fidji Simo, who was recruited for a new role at OpenAI. Simo called Rogers “the right leader” for the company’s next stage.
“He brings the kind of vision, operational excellence and customer obsession that will help Instacart play an even bigger role in people’s lives — and I couldn’t be more excited to see how Chris scales the company’s impact from here,” Simo said in the release.
Rogers came to Instacart in 2019 after almost 11 years at Apple, serving as the managing director for Apple Canada, per the release. He has more than 20 years of experience in areas spanning consumer goods, technology, retail and media. His current role at Instacart has him overseeing retailer relationships and expansions, ad sales and R&D, partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, Instacart Business and Instacart Health.
“We have a world-class team, deep partnerships, leading technology and a bold vision for the future, and I’m honored to step in and lead Instacart’s next chapter,” Rogers said in the release.
Simo is set to join OpenAI later this year, serving as CEO of applications.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced Simo’s appointment earlier this month, saying the move is in response to the firm’s evolving role, becoming a “global product company,” infrastructure company and nonprofit.
Simo’s job will center on helping OpenAI’s “traditional” functions scale as it shifts into a new phase of growth, Altman said.
“Applications brings together a group of existing business and operational teams responsible for how our research reaches and benefits the world, and Fidji is uniquely qualified to lead this group,” he said at the time.
As PYMNTS wrote soon after the announcement, the hiring of Simo shows that OpenAI is “making a strong play for the consumer market.”
“OpenAI clearly wants to own the consumer platform,” Julia Huang, founding partner at Vesey Ventures, told PYMNTS May 8. “They have a great shot at doing it, and Fidji’s experience at Instacart in bringing together merchants and consumers would be really valuable.”
