Etsy names Rachana Kumar chief technology officer

By

Jennifer Braun

Published
Oct 28, 2022

Online marketplace Etsy, Inc. announced on Thursday the appointment of Rachana Kumar, Etsy's vice president of engineering, as chief technology officer. 

Effective January 1, 2023, Kumar will replace Mike Fisher, who has decided to leave the company for family and to pursue other interests. Fisher will stay in his current position until the end of the year, and then remain with Etsy in an advisory capacity through April 2023.

Kumar has been with Etsy for more than eight years and is recognized for playing a leading role in critical initiatives, such as launching Etsy's product development principles, driving mobile and app penetration, and buyer growth. 

"When I joined in 2014 there were fewer than 20 million active buyers in the Etsy marketplace – today, there are over 88 million. Supporting that growth has required us to expand our teams, scale our systems, and leverage cutting-edge machine learning to improve the user experience,” said Kumar. “I am excited to continue on this journey as we use technology to create economic empowerment opportunities for our sellers and nurture our vibrant, global community.”

Most recently, she also launched Etsy's regional office in Mexico City, building a team to nearly 130 employees in just 18 months. Kumar will report to Etsy CEO Josh Silverman and will join Etsy's executive team. She will be based out of Etsy's Brooklyn, NY headquarters. 

"I am excited to congratulate Rachana on this well-deserved promotion, which is a testament to her leadership, her outstanding track record of accomplishments, and to the followership she's earned throughout Etsy; and reflects our strong bench of talent,” said Silverman. 

“Rachana has demonstrated an extraordinary ability to lead complex projects, leverage new technologies that improve our velocity and performance, and serve as a coach and mentor to her colleagues. I also want to thank Mike – affectionately known internally as 'Fish' – for helping lead Etsy through a period of transformation and growth over the last five years."