Bumble names Neil Shah Chief Business Officer for strategic transformation

Leadership changes come as Chief Financial Officer Anu Subramanian announces departure from dating App provider

By Arun Kumar

Austin, Texas based online dating App provider Bumble has appointed Indian American executive Neil Shah to the newly created role of Chief Business Officer as its Indian American Chief Financial Officer Anu Subramanian quit  to pursue other opportunities.

Shah who has served as an advisor to Bumble Inc will assume the key leadership position with responsibility for the execution of Bumble’s strategic transformation, including driving the company’s revenue model, pricing strategy, and partnerships, according to a media release.

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Shah previously served as Chief Operating Officer and Head of Business Operations at Slack, where he rose through strategy, data and business operations over the last eight years. Earlier in his career, Shah held strategy roles at Twitter, and began his career as a consultant at McKinsey & Co.

“Since the start of this year, we have taken bold steps to transform Bumble and strengthen our business to capture the large opportunity ahead, while changing online dating for the better. Our new Chief Business Officer role leverages Neil’s deep experience scaling technology companies and driving business improvements to advance our mission,” said Lidiane Jones, Chief Executive Officer of Bumble Inc. “With Neil’s partnership and our clear vision for Bumble’s future, we believe we are well positioned to deliver on the tremendous potential we see in the business.”

Meanwhile Subramanian will continue to serve as CFO through March 14, 2025 including through Bumble’s year-end earnings and the filing of its Form 10-K, and will assist with the transition of her responsibilities.

The Company has commenced a search process to identify her successor. Subramanian joined Bumble as CFO in 2020 and was instrumental in the Company’s 2021 initial public offering and presided over a period of rapid growth and global expansion.

“I want to sincerely thank Anu for her partnership and for her many significant contributions, which have helped grow Bumble into a billion-dollar global business today,” said Jones. “Anu has built a strong finance organization that has supported the Company’s growth and financial discipline, propelling consistent margin improvement and cash generation over the past several years. We are grateful for Anu’s leadership during a critical moment in our Company’s history and wish her all the best in her future endeavors.”

While announcing the leadership changes, Bumble also reaffirmed its financial outlook for the fourth quarter and full year of 2024, which was previously announced on Nov 6, 2024.

During the earnings call, executives noted that the company is in the early stages of a transformation of Bumble begun this year, CFO Dive reported.

“While we are making good early progress with Bumble-app strategic repositioning, we remain in the early innings of the work we are undertaking to strengthen our foundation, re-imagine the user experience and ultimately drive revenue aligned with the value we are delivering,” Subramanian said, according to a transcript of the call cited by Dive.

The company on Monday declined to comment further on the leadership changes, but in its filing affirmed its financial outlook for Q4 and the full year 2024 and said Subramanian’s decision to resign was not the result of any disagreement with the company, the company’s management or board, or on any matter relating to the company’s operations, policies, or practices, according to Dive.

First published in American Bazaar.