A Letter From FreshBooks’ Founder and Board Chair
FreshBookers,
I am writing to you today as FreshBooks’ founder and chair of the board to make you aware of important information related to FreshBooks’ leadership and plans going forward.
After careful consideration, the Board of Directors has determined it is in the long-term interests of our customers, our team and our shareholders, that FreshBooks sharpen its strategic focus. Fewer things. More focus.
In light of this change in direction, we have two significant updates to share:
- Today, we will part ways with some remarkable FreshBookers
- A leadership change that will see our CEO, Don Epperson, and our President, Mark Girvan, stepping away from the company, a transition they have been helping to administer, and is now almost complete.
I realize this is very difficult news. All the FreshBookers impacted deserve our thanks, our gratitude, our respect and our empathy. We will do our best to help each one transition. On behalf of the Board, I want to say a special thank you to Don and Mark for their valuable contributions to FreshBooks, their respect for the Board’s decision, and for their aid in facilitating this transition. Finally, I’d like to extend a thank you to every FreshBooker for your patience and support during this transition.
The board has appointed Mara Reiff and Wayne Jackson as Interim Co-CEOs and engaged a search firm who are actively recruiting for a new CEO. Mara and Wayne will be following up shortly with more details on what refocusing will look like.
Over the last five years, Don has made significant contributions to FreshBooks. Don saw us through the final miles of replatforming and championed the development of our General Ledger. He helped us navigate through the pandemic, open new offices around the world, and made missionary investments in data that will help secure our future for years to come.
Mark joined FreshBooks 9 years ago and has been a driving force ever since. He led our sales, partnership and support organizations throughout this time – and scaled both these organizations many times over while embedding the 4Es within them. Less well known, Mark was always willing to take a call from a disgruntled customer or partner, and in my experience, more than anything, loved mentoring future leaders.
With that, it is winter in startup land. Winter is a season, and FreshBooks has experienced it before. The early days of the pandemic. The 2008 financial crisis. FreshBooks was founded in the aftermath of the dot-com bust.
Each winter, FreshBookers have lived our Change value, seen the opportunity inside the adversity, applied themselves to refining our focus, and, as a result, strengthened the company for the long run. I trust this winter will be no different.
Myself and the Board of Directors have every confidence Mara and Wayne will do a tremendous job guiding us through this transition period. And in so doing, position us well for the more hospitable seasons to come.
With that, please join me in thanking Don, Mark and the other remarkable FreshBookers who won’t be carrying on with us. And once again, in extending our thanks, gratitude, respect and empathy to them as they chart a new course – while we chart ours.
