Strava Welcomes New CFO and CTO, Increases Focus on Athlete Personalization

Fitness tracking and social athletic community believes improved user experience key to becoming the home of your active life

SAN FRANCISCO--()--Strava, the world’s largest sports participation platform with over 44 million athletes and a million more joining every 30 days, is thrilled to welcome two C-level executives to its executive team.

Christine Park joins as Chief Financial Officer, responsible for overseeing finance and legal while helping Strava to continue the rapid global growth of its business and thriving community.

Yandong Liu joins Strava as Chief Technology Officer, and will apply his passion for using artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance personalization and build rich athlete experiences.

Strava is already considered the best app for runners and cyclists, and we are focused on building tools for our community to stay motivated and support each other in pursuit of their goals. Christine’s background in venture and with high-growth startups, coupled with her consumer tech and e-commerce operating experience, give her a strong perspective to help us prioritize the investments in our product and company. And Yandong’s experience with machine learning will help make Strava even more personalized, with recommendations for the next route to ride or running club to join,” says James Quarles, Strava CEO.

Christine is a Bay Area native with over 15 years of experience in both investing and operating businesses in e-commerce, consumer technology and media. Prior to joining Strava, Christine was Chief Operating Officer at Goodwater Capital and COO and CFO at Chloe + Isabel in New York City. She is a former competitive swimmer who believes in the power of community to motivate athletes, develop discipline and achieve greater health and wellness. Christine graduated with a B.S. in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, and earned an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Prior to Strava, Yandong was VP Engineering at NetEase, a leading technology company in Beijing, China where he worked with teams to leverage the latest machine learning technologies to deliver personalized news reading experiences. Before that he spent three years at Uber leading the development of its machine learning platform. Yandong holds a B.S. from Shandong University in China and an M.S. from Emory University in computer science, and was studying towards a Ph.D at Carnegie Mellon University before devoting himself to his professional career in 2011.

Download Strava for iOS and Android now, and upgrade to Strava Summit to customize your experience and enjoy added features. For more information on Strava visit www.strava.com.

About Strava

Strava is the social network for athletes. As the platform at the center of connected fitness, Strava’s mobile apps and website connect millions of active people every day. All athletes belong on Strava, no matter where they live, which sport they love or what device they use. Join the community at strava.com.

Our favorite stats:

  • 20 activities uploaded every second, 15 million every week
  • 300+ compatible mobile phones and GPS devices
  • More than 2 billion activity uploads
  • 170+ employees, most in San Francisco with more in Denver, Hanover and Bristol
  • 1,100+ professional athletes are on Strava
  • 1 million athletes join every 30 days
  • More than 44 million Strava athletes upload activities from 195 countries
  • 3.6 billion kudos given between athletes last year
  • Over 4 million photos shared per week on Strava
  • 85 million comments and Kudos given by Strava athletes per week
  • $7.99 a month to make the most of your sport with all 3 Summit Packs
  • 130+ communities making commuting better with Strava Metro

 

Contacts

Anne Baker
strava@inkhouse.com