Bird CEO Travis VanderZanden steps down as president – TechCrunch

Shared micromobility company Bird’s board of directors has appointed Shane Torchiana as president of the company, replacing the company’s CEO and founder Travis VanderZanden. These new roles will take effect on June 29th. per a regulatory filing.

VanderZanden was previously the chief operating officer (COO), at Lyft, a ride-hailing company. He will continue to serve as Bird’s CEO and chair of its board of directors.

The departure of VanderZanden was followed by the election of Torchiana. This comes just days after Bird was warned by the New York Stock Exchange about its low stock price. Bird’s shares fell 6.05% to close at $0.43, which, according to the exchange’s requirements for Class A Common Stocks, is far below the $1.00 minimum over the course of a consecutive 30-day trading period. The announcement was made after the market had closed. It briefly pushed the share price one cent lower, before recovering to $0.43.

Bird’s stock has plummeted from $6.18 at the start of the year, due to market conditions and issues within a company that has struggled to turn a profit since going public last year. Bird recently laid off 23% more employees.

Until recently, Torchiana served as Bird’s COO from January. Before that, Torchiana held various roles, including SVP of corporate planning and strategy from January 2019 through January 2022. Torchiana is a Boston Consulting Group veteran who worked for 8 years as a consultant. client engagements in data and analytics, strategy and transformation efforts, according to Bird’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Bird has yet to respond to inquiries for comment.

The Santa Monica–based e-scooter and e-bike sharing company is one of two micromobility companies to debut on the public markets, alongside Helbiz, both of which came to fruition via mergers with special purpose acquisition companies (SPAC). Like many SPACs operating in the electric vehicle market, neither company is doing very well. Bird was created by a merger of Switchback II and Bird on November 5. The initial price of the company was $8.34 per share. It was expected to be valued at around $2.3 billion.

Since then, Bird’s stock has steadily declined as the company has faced headwinds in the form of increased omicron cases, poor weather and significant operating costs that have continuously valued the company’s revenue lower than its losses. Bird reported its first-quarter earnings. saidIt would stop its burgeoning vehicle-sales business and instead focus on its core business, shared ride services.

This article has been updated with more context about Bird’s SPAC merger.