After being acquired last year by Watertown-based Bright Horizons, Sittercity has a new CEO, who also has Boston roots.
The Chicago-based company, a pioneer in the online childcare industry, named Zenobia Moochhala as its next chief executive officer. Moochhala is the co-founder of rival Care.com in Boston, where she worked for more than 11 years.
Moochhala led Care.com's consumer-marketing team and saw the company through its 2014 IPO, eventually leaving in 2018.
The new hire comes after Sittercity was acquired in 2020 by publicly traded childcare provider Bright Horizons. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but Sittercity became a subsidiary of Bright Horizons and remains based in Chicago.
Founded in 2001 by Genevieve Thiers, Sittercity created the first online marketplace for finding in-home child care. The company said last year it saw an "unprecedented" influx of parents looking to its platform for child care help during the pandemic, as well as an increase in professionals looking for work.
With the effects of the pandemic still being felt by many American families, Moochhala said finding access to reliable childcare remains more important than ever.
“Because of the pandemic, we are at a collision point of work and family responsibilities," she said in a statement. "It has revealed how critical it is for families to have access to high quality child care and early enrichment. It is a part of our society that will no longer be undervalued and overlooked."
Founded more than 30 years ago, Bright Horizons works with companies to give child-care options to their employees. It has 1,100 child care centers around the world, and works with more than 1,200 companies.
