Bumble Founder Whitney Wolfe Herd Steps Down as CEO, Successor is Slack CEO Lidiane Jones

After nine years leading the company, Whitney Wolfe Herd will return to her "founder roots" as executive chair, setting a new direction for Bumble; CEO transition comes amid falling revenues in dating app industry with share prices experiencing a dive from $70 at 2021 IPO to around $13.

Whitney Wolfe Herd has announced her departure as CEO of dating app company Bumble Inc. after a nine-year tenure, planning to become the firm's Executive Chair and focus on big-picture strategy and issues such as loneliness, social media toxicity, and global gender equality. She cites a desire to return to her 'founder roots'.
Her successor is Lidiane Jones, previously the CEO of Slack and a former Salesforce executive, who will take over as Bumble Inc.'s CEO from January 2024, the second time in a year she's succeeded a charismatic founder after Stewart Butterfield at Slack.
Whitney Wolfe Herd's transition to Executive Chair comes as Bumble faces a challenging period in the dating app industry, struggling with falling revenue and share prices that have plummeted from around $70 at the 2021 IPO to approximately $13.
Jones, a Microsoft alum who worked on incorporating new AI-powered workflows into Slack, plans to further integrate AI into Bumble’s apps, such as using it for chatbots or optimizing user profile pictures. She also sees potential for Bumble's international growth.
Wolfe Herd led Bumble through various stages, from being a start-up backed by a majority shareholder, buying out this partner in 2019 with Blackstone's help to become a CEO of a new parent company, and becoming the youngest woman to take a company public in 2021.