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NORTH AmERIcAN Newsline JULY 09, 2021 | The Indian Eye 30

Neha Parikh is the new CEO of waze

Our Bureau to my career, so I’m thrilled to
align with a company that puts
New York
their customers first.”
eha Parikh, 41, who was Waze was founded in Is-
the youngest and first rael in 2008 by Ehud Shabtai,
Nfemale to lead Hotwire Amir Shinar, and Uri Levine.
replaces Noam Bardin, who The crowdsourced navigation
stepped down as CEO of the app quickly grew in popularity,
Google-owned navigation ser- praised for its ability to take into
vice last November after leading account traffic and construction
the company for 12 years. in real time.
On her first day at Waze on The app quickly emerged as
June 22, she tweeted: “When I a top choice among Uber and
told my mom about my new @ Lyft drivers. And today, it has
waze role she said she was proud 140 million monthly active users
and then, in a whispered tone who drive more than 24 billion
added, “…but I’m not sure what miles every month.
you’re going to do there because The company was acquired
Waze already does everything” by Google in 2013 for a report-
Hah! Thrilled to figure that out ed $1.1 billion. And the app
since today is my first day as continued to flourish, as Google
CEO of @waze!” refrained from absorbing it into
“Anyone who knows me well its Maps division and allowed it
knows that I am a (vocal!) Waze to stay independent.
superfan both because it 100% The company laid off 5 per-
helps me outsmart traffic but As Hotwire’s youngest and displayed values, one of which is cent of its global workforce, or
also because, at its core, Waze is first female president, Parikh ‘Your next customer may be your 30 people, in September. Its na-
about people helping other peo- “led a return to growth by re- mom,’ which I love,” she said in scent Carpool service was hit es-
ple,” a “beyond thrilled” Parikh vamping the business model, the press release. “Relentless pecially hard, as people stopped
had tweeted on her appoint- reshaping the product, and re- customer focus has been central commuting to work.
ment in May. building the team and culture,”
Parikh started her career in Waze says. The aim is for her to
2000 as a Management Con- do the same at Waze.
sultant at PricewaterhouseCoo- “As Neha leads Waze into
pers, as per her LinkedIn page. the future, she will remain hy-
After getting her MBA from per-focused on our passionate
Northwestern University’s Kel- community, beloved brand, and
logg School of Management, best-in-class products,” a spokes-
she joined Expedia, where she person for the company said.
served in a variety of positions at She was appointed to the
two of the corporation’s subsid- board of Carvana in April 2019.
iaries: Hotels.com and Hotwire. The online car marketplace
She is also a board member praised Parikh for her focus on
of the online used car retailer customer service. “On my first
Carvana and Tailwind Acquisi- visit to the Carvana offices, I took
tion Corp. a picture of their prominently

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