The online education platform Udacity announced that Gabriel Dalporto, a board member of LendingTree, would take up the CEO role in the company.
The CEO post has been vacant for almost a year since the exit of Vishal Makhijani in October 2018. Makhijani had declined to state the reason for his exit.
However, a spokesperson stated that there were no complaints raised against Makhijani that might have pushed him to make the decision.
Company’s Co-founder and Executive Chairman Sebastian Thrun took up the task to search for a capable CEO who would drive the company forward.
After a year of search, Udacity has found a new CEO in Gabriel Dalporto. Dalporto has been an integral member of LendingTree for the past seven years having served in numerous positions including Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Financial Officer.
Dalporto is famed for his turnaround skills. However, he emphasized that he would not follow his usual strategy as this role would require a different one.
“I was hired as a growth executive; I was not hired to be a turnaround executive,” stated Dalporto when asked how his approach would be.
Dalporto became an executive advisor to CEO and a board member in LendingTree after stepping down as CFO in 2017. After a year, he resigned from the executive advisor post but still continues to be on the board of members.
Dalporto is joining Udacity at a crucial time and already has a lot in his hands. The company recently witnessed months of layoffs and has been undergoing a restructuring phase under Thrun.
The move was a cost-cutting strategy to bring the company back to the winning track. According to the company, consumer business has grown by more than 60% in three months since the initiation of the changes.
Dalporto declined to reveal his plans as the new CEO; however, it is touted that he would focus on bringing more students onboard the platform and closing enterprise and government program deals.
