Little Birdie, a new platform for online shopping that launched last month, has appointed ex-Uber marketer David Jennings as chief marketing officer, and Kogan.com’s former deputy CFO Joanne Smith as chief financial officer.
Jennings brings to Little Birdie over a decade of experience working for a slew of consumer packaged goods and technology companies, including Mondelez International where he led brands including Oreo and Kraft Cheese, and head of brand marketing at Durex for Europe, North America, Russia and Australia.
Little Birdie CMO, David Jennings (left) and CFO Joanna Smith (right)
His most recent role as head of global rider product marketing for Uber at its San Francisco headquarters saw Jennings build and grow adoption of a portfolio including UberX, Uber Pool, Uber Vaccine, and Uber Rent.
Jennings said of his new role: “With online shopping becoming the norm, I’m incredibly excited to play a role in building a discovery platform that provides a birds-eye view of everything happening in shopping.”
Meanwhile Smith brings extensive experience across ecommerce and technology businesses in the UK and Australia, where she has experience in taking organisations from the start-up phase to operating at scale and publicly-listed companies. Smith was an integral part of the team that took Kogan.com through its 2016 IPO and also worked in KPMG’s deal advisory team, advising clients on mergers and acquisitions and corporate transformations. Before joining Little Birdie, Smith was CFO of private equity-backed Compass Education.
Smith commented on her new role: “I am thrilled to be part of the team that will help take Little Birdie to new heights and I am looking forward to the challenge of guiding the business through rapid growth.”
Little Birdie, launched in August 2021 and secured a $30 million investment from Commonwealth Bank, the largest-ever pre-launch funding round for an Australian start-up.