Flexport CEO Clark announces departure

A change is coming at the top for San Francisco-based freight forwarding and customs brokerage services provider Flexport, with CEO Dave Clark stating yesterday that he is stepping down from his role.  

Clark joined the company in September 2022 as Co-CEO with Flexport Founder Ryan Petersen, following a nearly 23-year career at Amazon, in various operations, logistics and fulfillment roles. Ryan Petersen will resume his previous duties as CEO, following Clark’s departure.

In a note to Flexport staff, which he posted on the social media platform X, Clark said when he officially took over as CEO in March, Flexport began to transform the company while facing challenging economic conditions.

“I am very proud of the vision we agreed on, and we have established an operating model and structure to realize that vision,” he wrote. “We’ve built great tech at rapid speeds; especially the flagship SMB product for small businesses that we are launching for entrepreneurs [today], and I’m grateful to the teams we built who are working hard for customers.

Founders have the right to change their mind. I came to Flexport to do big things, and that’s where I believe we were headed. Today Ryan and I discussed his desire to return to focusing on growth in the core freight business. In light of that, I feel that he is best suited to lead the company in that direction. As such, I will be resigning from my position at Flexport.”   

During Clark’s tenure at Flexport, in May the company acquired the assets of Shopify Logistics, a subsidiary of a multi-channel commerce platform, Shopify, including Deliverr, a fulfillment technology services provider, which Shopify acquired for $2.1 billion in 2022.

Flexport officials said, at the time, that it would become Ottawa-based Shopify’s official logistics partner, and it added that with Shopify Logistics in the fold, its tech-driven platform will power businesses of all sizes to make it easy to plan, visualize, and execute their global supply chain, from manufacture to the customer’s store or door under one unified platform.

Clark described the acquisition as the “last piece of the puzzle that enables us to drive technology fueled solutions across the entire product life cycle from the manufacturer’s floor, across the oceans and skies, through ports and fulfillment, and, now, right into the hands of customers.”

And he explained that a key driver for acquiring Shopify Logistics was because the shipping industry has not experienced the same technological revolution is seen across other sectors.

“I came to Flexport specifically because I know this team is changing that,” he said. “We are digitizing and evolving one of the most important parts of the world’s economy—global trade. And I believe in our teams to deliver—democratizing the supply chain for businesses of all sizes on our mission to make global trade easy for everyone.”

In comments provided to LM, Rick Watson, Founder and CEO, RMW Commerce Consulting, observed that Clark and Flexport were never a fit.

“It’s a case of a virtual logistics business meeting a logistics infrastructure builder,” he said. “Flexport was always overrated and overvalued. Clark found himself a much bigger mess than he anticipated and pulled the ripcord. Flexport’s new new direction—freight—is a commodity and is in no way a future that Flexport is going to justify anything near its valuation. The announcement hints that Flexport will get rid of its fulfillment business (Deliverr) in favor of its freight business. Deliverr was just acquired a few months ago from Shopify, leaving Shopify without a fulfillment partner.”