Longtime Etsy board member Caterina Fake, best known for cofounding Flickr and Hunch, is leaving Etsy’s board, where she served as chairwoman. The news was revealed by Etsy chief executive Chad Dickerson, who will take over Fake’s role.
As Fake departs, former Mercer chief executive Michele Burns will join Etsy’s board, Dickerson announced.
According to Dickerson, Fake joined Etsy’s board eight years ago and “decided in July to step down to focus on family, cancer research, and doing what she does best: guiding startups and putting them on a solid path to success.”
In Fake’s words:
“In eight years I’ve seen how much the company has grown, how much art has been created, how many businesses have flourished. I’m happy and sad. Happy that we’ve come so far, and created so much that is good. And leaving the board means that, more often than not, the 100+ page documents I read will be written by Proust or Knausgaard, and will not contain spreadsheets. But not being Chairwoman of something so special, so vast and good? Sad. Nonetheless, at this point it’s impossible to get Etsy out of my life. I hang out with Etsy employees, wear Etsy clothes, eat from Etsy dishes, play an Etsy guitar, and wash my hair with Etsy shampoo.”
