On the Market: OpenAI, Microsoft, Spotify and Nextdoor Leaders

For many tech executives, the outbreak of Covid-19 turned into a leadership boot camp, requiring them to shepherd companies through the intense spike in demand for online shopping and entertainment and the painful slowdown in business that followed. A generation of tech executives is now leaving those companies with battle-honed skills.

Our latest installment of Free Agents highlights five former or outgoing leaders at companies who are newly on the market. Some, such as Spotify Chief Financial Officer Paul Vogel, oversaw a jump in ad revenue and a doubling in share price by 2021, then managed multiple rounds of layoffs as growth slowed. Similarly, Nextdoor CEO Sarah Friar took the ultralocal listing site through a public offering in 2021 but couldn’t revitalize revenue growth, prompting the board to replace her.