New York, NY - Bitly Inc., the world’s leading Connections Platform, announced today the appointment and promotion of several key leaders to drive product innovation and business growth. These leadership elevations are part of Bitly’s ongoing commitment to providing unparalleled value and service excellence to its global customer base while also establishing itself as a best place to work.

Bitly has achieved impressive growth in 2024, increasing its workforce by 18% year-over-year (YOY) across key departments, including engineering, finance, product development, and design. This strategic personnel investment highlights the company’s commitment to driving innovation within its Connections Platform, amplifying overall business growth. Its latest product enhancement, Bitly Pages, exemplifies this progress offering businesses a powerful tool to create, share, and convert end-to-end customer connections. As the company strengthens its leadership teams, it is able to evolve its Connections Platform while also delivering reliable, scalable, and secure customer experiences.

“As we scale both our platform and global customer base, it’s important that we invest in the right talent to drive our strategic initiatives,” said Toby Gabriner, CEO, Bitly. “These leaders bring a wealth of experience that directly aligns with our mission and commitment to creating a collaborative performance-led culture, while also helping to shape our product vision and driving financial success for Bitly.”

Jerome Alabado, hired as Vice President of Financial Planning and Analysis, will drive financial planning, budgeting, and forecasting to support the company’s growth and profitability objectives. He oversees strategic financial analysis, enhancing efficiency and accuracy in financial systems and tools to enable informed decision-making. Jerome held leadership roles at public companies and high-growth startups, most recently as Vice President of Finance at ActiveCampaign.

Lauren Schuman, hired as Vice President of Product Growth, will focus on driving sustainable revenue growth across Bitly’s Connections Platform. She will also drive activation, monetization, and retention for Bitly’s self-serve customers. Lauren comes to Bitly with more than 15 years of experience and prior leadership product growth roles at Mural and Mailchimp.

Manu Jain, hired as Vice President of Data, will continue building Bitly’s comprehensive data platform to empower Bitly with insights that fuel innovation, enhance customer experience, and chart new pathways. Manu is a data and analytics leader with more than 15 years of experience building data functions from the ground up. He also has experience shaping product strategy, vision and roadmaps with data and most recently held a leadership role at PayPal. He has previously led teams at Wayfair, Meta, and McKinsey.

Kelsey Stevenson, promoted to Chief Product and Technology Officer, will spearhead strategic initiatives to enhance BItly’s technological capabilities and product innovation, to strengthen Bitly’s customer expectations and needs. Kelsey has been with Bitly for over four years having a deep understanding of Bitly’s customers and brings more than a decade of experience to the role.

Raphael Syed, promoted to Vice President of Engineering, will play a pivotal role in defining the vision and strategy for Bitly’s global engineering structure alongside Bitly’s executive leadership team. He is focused on building reliable, scalable, and secure systems for Bitly’s customers and users. He also works to enhance technical and process efficiency and security and compliance endeavors from an engineering perspective. Raphael most recently served as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of a German start-up and was also previously responsible for managing the engineering organization at Chronext.

“We are confident that strengthening our leadership team with these new appointments and promotions will help evolve our Connections Platform to enhance customer experiences and provide exceptional products and services to our global customer base,” Gabriner noted. “With a strong leadership team specializing in multiple facets, we are well-equipped to harness the power of data to make well-informed products, financial planning, and strategic decisions.”

About Bitly

Bitly is the world’s leading Connections Platform, providing a way for brands and businesses to build more meaningful connections with their audiences both online and offline. As a leading global SaaS company, Bitly empowers millions of monthly active users and hundreds of thousands of customers globally to use Bitly Links, Bitly Codes, Bitly Pages, and Bitly Analytics as a trusted way to engage their audience and deliver critical notifications, information, and experiences. Bitly is proud to be named as one of Inc. Magazine’s Best Workplaces in 2023, a globally respected publication that awards American companies this honor as the result of comprehensive measurement of those who have excelled in creating exceptional workplaces and company culture. For more on Bitly, visit https://bitly.com/.