Twilio Names Digital and Privacy Chiefs Amid Profitability Concerns

Twilio has announced two brand-new C-suite positions, picking Reeny Sondhi as its first Chief Digital Officer and Amy Holcroft to be its Chief Privacy Officer.

Sondhi’s role as digital chief means she will report to COO Khozema Shipchandler and be in charge of scaling the cloud communications platform-as-a-service’s technology operations. Holcroft, on the other hand, will report to Twilio’s Chief Legal Officer, Dana Wagner, and lead the team responsible for protecting the interests of Twilio’s more than 250,000 customers and enabling the company’s compliance with information privacy laws.

In the company’s announcement, Shipchandler said he was “thrilled” to have Sondhi and Holcroft on board and that the duo “bring essential experience to Twilio that will set us up for success as we scale and transform our business while protecting our customers’ and their end users’ digital rights.”

Sondhi is a cybersecurity-minded executive who comes to Twilio from Autodesk, where she most recently worked as Chief Security Officer. Before that, she led security engineering for Dell-owned EMC. Holcroft also brings a wealth of security experience and joins the company after a 13-year career at HP and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, where she served as HPE’s Chief Privacy Officer.

The two brand-new roles at Twilio come as the company looks to make digital privacy and rights a top priority, as businesses increasingly look to digital channels to drive customer engagement.

“We are in the midst of tectonic shifts in online consumer privacy regulations, norms, and practices,” Shipchandler explained. “Navigating and responding to this evolving landscape successfully is critical for Twilio and for our customers as we build a single platform that enables businesses in more than 180 countries to build direct relationships with their customers.”

Twilio’s new privacy and digital leaders join the company, which quadrupled its headcount during the pandemic, almost two years after Twilio suffered a security breach. Hackers were able to manipulate code in a software product that Twilio’s customers use to route calls and other communications. Luckily for the company, there was no sign the attackers had accessed customer data.

“Privacy is a top priority for Twilio and its customers, and it plays a critical role underpinning the company’s vision to be the leading customer engagement platform,” Holcroft stated. “It is our responsibility to protect the data not only of the businesses we serve, but of their customers as well, as their engagements and relationships continue to move into the digital realm.”

The duo also join Twilio as its revenue growth is increasingly overshadowed by its ballooning expenses, giving potential investors pause. In fact, Twilio has never turned a net profit and in the company’s most recent Form 10-K it wrote, “We have a history of losses and may not achieve or sustain profitability in the future.”

Sign up now: Stay up to date, level up and hire better with our behind the scenes newsletters at the world’s top startups.