Real-time visibility pioneer expands leadership team as momentum continues to build for end-to-end supply chain visibility solutions
FourKites, provider of the world’s leading real-time supply chain visibility platform, today announced the appointment of five industry veterans with extensive hypergrowth experience to executive leadership positions at the company. Stephen Elsasser joins as Chief Financial Officer; Bob Slaby is the company’s first Chief Customer Officer; Steve Dowse will serve as SVP and General Manager of the company’s new International Products business unit; Dave Ellis joins as SVP of Global Solutions; and Jason Frerich serves as VP of Solutions.
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The new leaders join in the midst of significant growth for FourKites, the category pioneer and industry leader. Gartner® named FourKites a Leader positioned furthest for Completeness of Vision in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant™ for Real-Time Transportation Visibility Platforms. Demand for FourKites’ platform is accelerating globally in a market that is increasingly adopting real-time supply chain visibility solutions to help companies better manage operations amid ongoing supply chain disruptions.
As the largest global supply chain visibility platform, with more than 50% customer growth in the last year, FourKites tracks over 2 million shipments every day. Over the last 12 months, FourKites has tracked more than 29 billion miles across 176 countries and more than 7 million facilities. Moreover, the company has worked alongside its customers to translate their biggest pain points into more than 100 new products and features since the beginning of 2020 alone; it has received patents for its groundbreaking AI technology, and has expanded the definition of real-time visibility beyond transportation to include warehouses, stores, trucks and beyond.
“I’m thrilled to welcome Stephen, Bob, Steve, Dave and Jason to FourKites — all top-caliber industry veterans with extensive experience leading organizations through successful periods of hypergrowth and global expansion,” said Mathew Elenjickal, founder and CEO of FourKites. “These additions to our executive bench will help ensure that FourKites continues to lead — with our superior network of supply chain data, more breakthrough innovations and new sources of value for the world’s largest network of shippers, carriers, brokers and 3PLs.”
Stephen Elsasser’s unique background includes prior CFO roles in industries as diverse as fintech, martech, trading and investment banking. Most recently at Fiserv, he held several leadership positions, including SVP and Group CFO of Fiserv’s $3 billion Account Processing business. Prior to Fiserv, he held various leadership positions at Shop Your Way; Brightstar; Sears Holdings Corporation; Citadel Investment Group; and Houlihan Lokey. As FourKites’ CFO, Elsasser will lead the company’s growing global Finance, Accounting and Legal teams.
“Coming to FourKites was an easy choice for me,” said Elsasser. “Supply chain is truly at the nexus of everything, and it’s top of mind for all business executives these days. FourKites is the pioneer of this industry and the undeniable market leader, and it’s in a position to grow and scale tremendously over the next few years as companies around the world strive to optimize their supply chains.”
As the new Chief Customer Officer, Bob Slaby brings more than 25 years of experience in technology hardware, software, services and support at major corporations, including Merck Pharmaceuticals, Citibank and Hewlett-Packard. More recently, he has served in executive Customer Operations roles at Altify (Sales SaaS solution sold to Upland Software in 2019) and Anaplan (SaaS solution for Finance/Sales/Supply Chain Planning, 2018 IPO). In the newly created position of Chief Customer Officer at FourKites, Bob will lead the company’s global Professional Services, Implementation, Customer Success and Product Support teams.
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“FourKites has the perfect combination of products and people to help our customers manage their supply chains and make better decisions. I am thrilled and honored to join such a talented team of experts and help customers find the best possible solutions to one of today’s biggest challenges.”
With the ongoing ocean shipping crisis, FourKites has continued to build upon its Dynamic Ocean platform to create the most advanced and robust solution on the market for real-time and predictive ocean visibility, exception management and cost controls. Stepping in to serve as the GM of the company’s new International Products unit, Steve Dowse brings decades of experience conceptualizing, developing, selling and operating platform-based solutions for the global container logistics industry, and most recently was head of Product Strategy at Blume Global. Previously, he was the CTO and COO of tech-logistics startup IAS, which later merged with REZ-1 to become Blume. In leading FourKites’ International Products unit, Dowse will be responsible for the vision, strategy and P&L for the company’s global ocean and air solutions, including its next-generation Dynamic Ocean solutions.
Customers across all industries are realizing incredible value as supply chain visibility impacts key business drivers like planning, inventory, sustainability and customer experience. FourKites has brought on Dave Ellis as SVP Global Solutions, to help customers maximize the value they get from the platform. Ellis brings more than 20 years of experience leading Solutions Consulting teams in enterprise software, cloud and digital transformation at companies including OpenText, GXS and Covisint.
And as FourKites continues to dive deeper into purpose-built industry solutions, industry veteran hires play a key role in translating the value of the platform and driving innovation for key verticals. Jason Freirch is a supply chain veteran with more than 20 years of experience in both retail and manufacturing. He was Director of Domestic Transportation for Michaels Stores and held various leadership roles at Nike, HP, Emerson and Walmart. He is responsible for FourKites’ growth and leadership in industry solutions, and will bring his extensive retail experience to bear on one of the company’s fastest-growing verticals.
Today’s announcement comes on the heels of the recent appointment of Marc Boileau as Senior Vice President, Sales and Carrier Operations, EMEA.
