Former exec at Priceline, Russian e-commerce platform takes CEO reins at Techstars

BOULDER — Techstars, the Boulder-born startup accelerator and investment operation, has named technology industry veteran Maëlle Gavet as its new CEO.

The French-born Gavet has held a slew of leadership positions including as CEO of OZON.ru, an e-commerce platform referred to in media reports as “the Amazon of Russia” and executive vice president of operations at travel booking site operator Priceline Group.

She takes over leadership of Techstars from the accelerator’s co-founder David Brown, who will continue to serve on the board.

“Our mission is to support entrepreneurs everywhere because we believe they hold the solutions to the world’s greatest challenges,” Techstars co-founder and newly minted board chairman David Cohen said in a prepared statement announcing Gavet’s hiring. “It’s our job to continue supporting them with mentorship and access to capital as they scale, and even more so as we do. Techstars’ success is attracting more and more interest from founders and investors, and we’re on a strong growth trajectory. We decided to bring in Maëlle Gavet, an experienced operator who has overseen growth of more than 10x our scale, to lead us through this next phase of our journey.”

Gavet, who most recently served as chief operating officer for real estate brokerage Compass Inc., is the author of “Trampled by Unicorns: Big Tech’s Empathy Problem and How to Fix It.”

“Entrepreneurs change the world and at this moment in time in particular, we need them more than ever,” Gavet said in a statement. “Unfortunately, a lack of access to capital and effective networks is blocking so much potential. I’ve learned this first-hand, as an entrepreneur and as an investor. The success of the Techstars accelerator model and the velocity of its investing create so much potential to help even more entrepreneurs, explore new approaches to venture capitalism and help the tech industry become more human-centered and more diverse. I am honored and excited to join such a strong, mission-driven company that I know can transform the impact that tech has on the world, one entrepreneur at a time.”

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