Slack CEO and co-founder Stewart Butterfield to leave the company in January
Butterfield's departure comes a year after Slack was bought by Salesforce for $27 billion
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Stewart Butterfield, co-founder and chief executive officer of Slack Technologies, will depart from his role in January, according to the company's owner Salesforce.
Butterfield helped establish Slack as a workplace communication tool during its early establishment in 2013 and has been central to the company's growth over the last few years. In December 2020, Salesforce became the largest owner of Slack after buying the app for $27.7 billion.
The co-founder's departure comes days after Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor announced he would depart the company. According to the Wall Street Journal, Taylor is considered one of the central people in the deal to buy Slack last year.
Butterfield told employees that his departure has no correlation to Taylor's resignation, adding that "planning has been in the works for several months! Just weird timing," according to the Verge.
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The company will replace Butterfield with Lidiane Jones, the current executive VP & GM of digital experience clouds, next year. Since the Salesforce acquisition, leadership at Slack, as well as the app's functionality, has remained mostly the same.
"Stewart is an incredible leader who created an amazing, beloved company in Slack," a Salesforce spokesperson said in a statement. "He has helped lead the successful integration of Slack into Salesforce and today Slack is woven into the Salesforce Customer 360 platform.
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"Stewart also was instrumental in choosing Lidiane Jones as the next Slack CEO to lead it into its next chapter," the spokesperson added. "Lidiane has a strong background in customer and enterprise tech and has been among Salesforce’s leadership for over three years. We’re grateful for Stewart and excited for Lidiane as she takes over the reins of Slack."
Butterfield told employees in an internal message that he plans to focus on "learning new things" and spending time with his family. Previously, the billionaire entrepreneur co-founded the photo-sharing technology purchased by Yahoo called Flickr.