Next-Generation Commerce Platform Kite Appoints CPTO and CFO

Kite's growing leadership team will support the company as it continues to build out its modern, technology-driven commerce platform for investing in, acquiring, and operating high-potential brands.

NEW YORK, Aug. 31, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Kite, a next-generation commerce company specializing in scaling high-potential brands, announced today the appointment of Michael Hart, former VP of Product at Fletch and Amazon product management and engineering executive, as CPTO and Markus Leunig, former CFO of Walker Edison and The North Face, as CFO.

"The foundation of an exceptional company lies in the brilliance of its people," said Rob Solomon, Co-Founder and CEO of Kite. "With our latest influx of talent, we're more confident than ever that this powerhouse team is poised not just to innovate but to redefine and shape the next era of commerce." Since Kite's launch in April, the company has been building out its team across all functions, including tech, supply chain, growth and marketing, design, and M&A.

Michael Hart, CPTO of Kite, has spent his career building platforms and ground-breaking products using machine learning at iconic technology companies and startups. Prior to Kite, Michael was the VP of Product for data analytics platform Fletch, and led product and engineering teams at companies including Amazon, Netflix, and Microsoft. Michael was the first CTO at B2C e-commerce pioneer Bonobos, where he built their first product development team, improved e-commerce site sales by 20%, and refactored e-commerce systems to support business growth and peak sales periods with 99.95% availability. Michael is also the founder of Attune, which created personalized, "algorithmic merchandising as a service" for online retailers, driving revenue growth for customers. Michael will be instrumental in Kite's work to harness the AI and the API economy to build a modern technology stack that will drive manufacturing, supply chain, design, and customer acquisition excellence at scale.

Markus Leunig, CFO of Kite, was previously CFO of Walker Edison, an innovative ready-to-assemble furniture company with a leading presence on the largest e-commerce platforms, where he led a significant financial restructuring and implemented financial and operational best practices. Prior to Walker Edison, he spent over 13 years with VF Corporation, one of the world's largest apparel, footwear and accessories companies, including five years as the Global CFO of The North Face brand. At The North Face, the brand achieved record revenues and gross margins, while commercializing large-scale innovations such as Futurelight Outerwear and Vectiv Footwear.

Additional key leadership hires include:

• John Kufner, who brings supply chain, operations, and consumer product experience from previous leadership roles at Bain Capital Portfolio Group, Werner Ladder, Fortune Brands, Masonite and Owens Corning, to Kite as Chief Operations Officer.
• Nastasha Tan, who brings design, product development, and brand experience from leadership roles at Ideo and Uber, to her role as Kite's Chief Design Officer. 
• Candice Taylor, who brings talent and people experience from leadership roles at ChowNow and Orum.io, to Kite as Vice President of People.
• James Chen, CTO of Built Technologies and former CTO of Flexport, one of the first digitizers of supply chain, who joins Kite as a member of its Board of Directors. Throughout his career at Flexport, Amazon, and Rakuten, Chen has built industry-leading global logistics, shipping, and end-to-end commerce technologies, along with the product and engineering teams needed to bring them to life.
• Mark Mitchke, President and CEO of Delta Dental and former VP and GM of Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), who has joined Kite's Board of Directors. Mitchke's work at Amazon empowered hundreds of thousands of small and medium-sized businesses around the world and quadrupled sales for the company.

About Kite
Founded by Rob Solomon, Juxtapose, and Blackstone in 2022, Kite is a next-generation commerce company specializing in scaling high-potential brands in partnership with ambitious entrepreneurs. Kite is an "every channel" commerce platform designed to support digital-first consumer product brands in developing the infrastructure and technologies they need to scale their businesses to customers across e-commerce, social, retail, and more. The company aims to leverage AI and the API economy to build a modern technology stack that will drive manufacturing, supply chain, design, and customer acquisition excellence at scale. Through strategic M&A, Kite will take an ambitious, long-term approach to empowering brands by equipping founders with the capital, operational resources, and technology to accelerate the growth of their businesses. Learn more at www.kite.co.

Contact:
Alex Hollander
[email protected]

SOURCE Kite