Gorillas takes its people department to board level and appoints Deena Fox as Global Chief People Officer

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Gorillas Technologies GmbH expands its Executive Leadership Team and signs long-time international HR Exec Deena Fox as its first Global Chief People Officer. As of August 1, 2021, Fox is responsible for all aspects of Gorillas’ company culture and global people strategy. Fox brings to Gorillas broad experience from fast growing companies in the tech, retail, healthcare, and e-commerce sectors. With the appointment of Fox, Gorillas drills down on its people focus, while further strengthening its C-suite.

Gorillas has been all about its people since day one. Its large community of riders, warehouse and operations personnel, as well as management and support employees sit at the heart of its rapidly growing business. True to Gorillas' need for speed, the company has grown to over 10,000 people in just 1 year. It’s time for the young company to increase focus on its HR strategy and infrastructure, ensuring a strong foundation for future growth.

As a former HR Executive of Amazon, Hugo Boss, Jet, and Oscar Health, Fox has contributed to the successful growth stories of some of the world’s most recognizable brands. Having worked across a wide range of industries, she has experienced first-hand, the challenges and opportunities that come at different stages in every company’s life-cycle. Fox has built and led the people function in early stage start-ups, companies preparing for and through their IPO, as well as large companies continuing to experience hyper-growth. Leveraging her many experiences and expertise, Fox will now devote herself to the mission of enabling continued, accelerated growth at Gorillas while nurturing the company’s diverse and inclusive culture.

“When I first heard the story of Gorillas, I was blown away by the explosive vertical growth, global ambition, and laser focus on execution - I immediately wanted to be a part of making history with this team,” says Fox. “What I found even more compelling, was CEO, Kağan Sümer’s, unequivocal commitment to balance Gorillas hyper-growth with a major focus on people and HR infrastructure. Gorillas continues to attract smart, kind, ambitious people all over the world and now, at the company’s one year mark, it’s time to take our commitment to their growth, development, and experience to the next level.”

As Gorillas Global Chief People Officer, Fox will be part of the management board reporting directly to Founder and CEO, Kağan Sümer.

“Gorillas is a diverse collective of authentic people, taking bold decisions to deliver on our mission. Through Gorillas rapid expansion, we’ve brought growth in commerce and job opportunities to the markets we operate in, but of all of the investments we’ve made or will make in the future, nothing is more important than investing in our people. I have great confidence in Deena’s ability to design and execute a global people strategy that will have a strong and immediate impact on our global workforce, while positioning us well for the many stages of growth still ahead,” says Sümer.

About Gorillas

Gorillas, founded by CEO Kağan Sümer, builds an infrastructure for the fastest last-mile delivery of essential human needs. The on-demand delivery startup needs just ten minutes to get a user’s desired goods from the cart to the user’s desired location. Users of the app benefit from access to more than up to 2,000 essential items at retail prices for a delivery fee of just £1.80. By disrupting the shopping and supply chain experience of traditionally slow and inflexible retail companies, Gorillas is shaping new grocery consumer behaviour (Need-Order-Get). With its latest funding round led by repeat investor Coatue Management, Gorillas has raised $290M in its Series B and has become Europe’s fastest unicorn ever, only months after closing its $44M Series A. Other investors include DST Global, Tencent, Fifth Wall and Greenoaks (Atlantic Food Labs also participated). In contrast to established gig economy models, Gorillas employs more than 10,000 employees globally – spreading true change in its community. In a little over one year, Gorillas has expanded to more than 55+ cities, including Amsterdam, London, Paris, Madrid, New York, Milan and Munich, and built up more than 100 warehouses across 9 countries. Currently, Gorillas is available in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Denmark, Spain, the UK, and the United States.