Shopify's Quiet Leadership Shuffle: A New COO And A Departing CRO

To quintuple a company’s market capitalization is no small thing. It is the sort of achievement that lives on in a carefully worded LinkedIn post, a digital monument to a period of intense, focused effort. For Bobby Morrison, the departing Chief Revenue Officer of Shopify, this accomplishment sits alongside another: turning a negative cash flow into eight consecutive quarters of positive return.

After nearly two decades at a telecommunications giant like Verizon, and a stint at Intuit, one imagines the change of scenery at Shopify was profound. He mentioned working for a “mission-obsessed, founder-led company,” as if describing a newly discovered species, one whose patterns he had to learn. A fulfillment he did not know he was missing.

Now, after three years, he is gone.

One must consider the curious timing of it all. The departure of one chief, the promotion of another. A quiet reshuffling in the grand house. Only a month prior, the Chief Operating Officer, Kaz Nejatian, also departed. He left for what he called a “once-in-a-lifetime” chance to redefine real estate with a tech firm, Opendoor. It is a powerful phrase, suggesting a calling that could not be ignored.

The official regulatory filing assured everyone of a “seamless transition,” and that the remaining team would simply absorb the duties. It is a statement of immense, perhaps even improbable, efficiency. A mechanism ticking onward, its displaced parts barely making a sound as they fall away. A restructuring of the commercial organization, they said.

A phrase that explains everything and nothing.

Into this space, this newly created vacancy at the top, steps Jess Hertz. Not from sales, not from product, but from the legal department. The former general counsel is now the Chief Operating Officer. The company speaks of her in architectural, almost mechanical, terms. She has spent four years, they say, “rewiring how we operate.” Building systems.

A fixer of things. Someone who “thinks from first principles” and “ships smart fixes.” It is a fascinating portrait, blending the foundational logic of the public sector with the frantic execution of technology. One does not picture a charismatic leader giving speeches, but a quiet, thoughtful engineer examining the intricate workings of a clock, making minute adjustments to ensure it tells the correct time, always. A strange, quiet physics governs these movements.

A CRO leaves fulfilled. A COO leaves for a dream. And a lawyer arrives to rewire the machine.

• New Leadership General Counsel Jess Hertz has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer, succeeding Kaz Nejatian, who left the company in May.
• Executive Departure Chief Revenue Officer Bobby Morrison announced his departure after a three-year tenure, during which he cites helping Shopify quintuple its market capitalization.
• A Preceding Exit The promotion follows last month’s departure of former COO Kaz Nejatian, who joined the real estate technology firm Opendoor as its new CEO.
• Corporate Restructuring Shopify confirmed the changes were part of a broader restructuring of its commercial organization, but did not comment on specific individual impacts beyond the announcements.