OfferUp Expands Executive Team with Ameesh Paleja, Former CTO of Starz, as Chief Technology Officer, and Sarah Bilton as VP of Employee Experience

Company Taps Experienced Marketplace and E-Commerce Executives to Fuel Innovation and Growth

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Mar 21, 2019, 09:00 ET

SEATTLE, March 21, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- OfferUp, the largest mobile marketplace in the U.S. for local buyers and sellers, today announced the appointment of Ameesh Paleja as Chief Technology Officer and Sarah Bilton as Vice President of Employee Experience. The announcement comes on the heels of Bill Carr (15-year Amazon veteran) joining the company as COO, and Rodrigo Brumana (previously from eBay) as CFO. The high profile additions to the executive leadership team underscores the company's dedication to providing buyers and sellers with the simplest and most trusted marketplace experience.

"This is an exciting time for OfferUp with nearly a trillion dollars worth of unused items inside American households," said Nick Huzar, co-founder and CEO of OfferUp. "As a top five shopping app on iOS and Android, we're rapidly entering our next stage of growth by investing in maturing business lines, and continuing to build our executive roster with strong leaders who have proven experience scaling companies."

Paleja, former CTO of Starz and co-founder and CEO of Atom Tickets, will oversee OfferUp's engineering and data science teams and will be responsible for all strategic aspects of the technology organization, including infrastructure, security, product engineering, and architecture.

"To disrupt an entire industry, you need a simple idea that's brilliantly executed," said Paleja. "OfferUp is a marketplace leader because it is unwavering in its passion for delivering exceptional experiences for its users. I look forward to working with an incredibly talented team to provide buyers and sellers with products and services that have a direct impact on their success."

Prior to joining OfferUp and as CTO of Starz, Paleja oversaw the modernization of Starz's technology platform, enabling their international expansion and managing the overhaul of the company's digital media publishing pipeline. Paleja spent more than 10 years at Amazon, where he was the founding employee of Amazon's digital research and development facility in Southern California, managing a team of over 550 employees for products including Amazon Prime Instant Video, Amazon's Appstore, Cloud Drive, and Kindle. As co-founder of Atom Tickets, Paleja continues to serve on its board as a strategic advisor. He has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of California, San Diego, and holds 24 patents in digital video and related fields.

Bilton joins OfferUp as the Vice President of Employee Experience after having most recently served as the Vice President of People Practices at e-commerce start-ups Julep Beauty and Leafly. In her new role, she will lead the strategic development of OfferUp's employee experience initiatives to help drive business results, foster manager success, and increase employee engagement and retention.

"I came to OfferUp because I believe in the passionate employees here and their authentic vision to empower people to prosper," said Bilton. "I'm excited to guide our path in creating a high-quality employee experience and invest in the company's most valuable strengths as it enters its next chapter: its people and its culture."

Bilton has spent more than 13 years at startups in the Seattle-area tech community building people practices and culture. In 2005, she joined Zillow and helped guide the human resources group from start-up through IPO. She began her career in New York City working in fashion and technology and holds an honors degree in Sociology and American Studies from the University of Wolverhampton in the UK.

More Information
Career opportunities are available now across several OfferUp departments. See the Careers page, follow @lifeatofferup on Instagram, or check out the OfferUp blog for more details.

About OfferUp
OfferUp is dedicated to building the simplest and most trustworthy way for people to buy and sell in their communities. As the largest mobile marketplace for local buyers and sellers in the U.S., the company's iOS and Android apps have been in the top five most popular shopping apps lists for more than three years. The privately held company is based in Bellevue, WA and backed by top investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Warburg Pincus, GGV Capital, T Rowe Price and Coatue Management. For more information, visit our website and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

SOURCE OfferUp