Ahead of its upcoming move to a new headquarters, automotive shopping site CarGurus has named a new CFO.
CarGurus announced Monday that Elisa Palazzo would be joining the company as chief financial officer. Her start date is Dec. 4.
Palazzo is taking over from Scot Fredo, who left the CFO role at CarGurus late last year after nearly seven years with the company, according to his LinkedIn profile. Fredo started at CarGurus as vice president of finance. He moved on to a CFO role at JustAnswer.
Before Fredo, CEO Jason Trevisan was the longtime CFO of CarGurus. Trevisan was CarGurus’ chief financial officer and president of international for six years before being appointed chief executive, when founder Langley Steinert stepped into the executive chairman role.
Palazzo joins CarGurus with about two decades of operating, investing and transaction experience. Her roles have focused on marketplaces that reach both consumer and business-to-business users.
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Palazzo serves as deputy CFO and senior vice president of finance at Talkspace, which provides online behavioral health services. She initially joined the company in 2021 as part of Hudson Executive Capital’s involvement in Talkspace. Palazzo was previously a managing director at Hudson Executive Capital, overseeing investments in consumer, online, and digital media companies.
“Elisa’s breadth of experience leading financial operations and investment strategy within the tech sector will be invaluable to our team as we continue to evolve our platform with the aim of driving greater value for our dealer partners, consumers, and stockholders,” Jason Trevisan, CEO of CarGurus, said in a statement. “Her extensive financial expertise and strategic vision will be valuable assets in our current stage and as we further expand our transaction and digital retail capabilities.”
CarGurus will soon move from its offices in Cambridge to Back Bay. The company's headquarters building is being built over the Mass Turnpike, which will also house the North American headquarters for Lego.
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What CFOs of the Year say has been their career highlight
I have a truly unique situation. I have had the extraordinary privilege and joy of working alongside my two brothers for the past two-plus decades. As someone who holds family above all else, the opportunity to collaborate with them in building a thriving company has brought me immeasurable pride and fulfillment. Beyond being the pinnacle of my professional journey, sharing each day with Bob and Patrick is undeniably the highlight of my day. Together, we have forged a bond that transcends business, making our shared success all the more meaningful. ISG started out as a small, regional investigative company and together, we’ve grown it to be a nationally recognized company offering a comprehensive array of services tailored to support claim and litigation processes for insurance and legal professionals. We’ve experienced over 300% growth as a company over the past three years and I look forward to what we accomplish the next few years.
For me, it was how we handled the pandemic here at Endicott. I spent the time working very closely with our new president, Steven DiSalvo. It was important to us that all of our employees were supported, and that our students receive the best experience they could under the circumstances. As mandated, we sent students and staff home in April 2020 and completed the spring semester remotely. During that time every employee — even if they couldn’t do their jobs from home — was paid their full salary and we never reduced any benefits. We were mostly back in the office in June 2020 and fully opened the campus in September for the fall 2020 semester. We were socially distanced, tested all members of campus weekly, and held almost all classes in person. We spent the summer planning for this by reallocating budgets and resources, etc., finished the year with a surplus and never took a draw off the endowment. The college was in a stronger financial position after Covid than we were before.
When I first joined the Cannabis Control Commission, the agency had fewer than 10 staff members, we were subletting space from the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, and we did not even have a copy machine. In those early days, I was focused on helping the commission get everything up and running and establishing the agency’s financial and accounting operations. It is rewarding to see how these early efforts contributed to what we have today: 100-plus staff, two offices, a $4 billion industry, and we’re still evolving as an agency.
Witnessing the success of those whom I’ve had the great pleasure of working with and mentoring. Building working relationships and watching careers thrive. The highlight of my career is actually other people's successes.
I’m exceptionally proud of my contributions and growth at Verve during my first year with the company. My responsibility right out of the gate was to build a scalable, working financial structure for our newly public company and through these initial efforts we’ve been able to maintain strong fiscal health as an organization. Within the past year, one thing stands out the most. In July 2022, we closed on an upsized underwritten public offering of $258.8 million. There were a number of moving pieces that needed to fall in place in order to get that done at that moment. The hard work and dedication from my fellow leadership team members, finance team and partners across the organization helped us execute successfully and will always be a highlight of my tenure here.
I have had many highlights. Every opportunity that I have had was a highlight. Becoming an assistant controller, then controller at a couple of colleges, then most importantly, becoming the CFO at my alma mater. It had been my dream to become a CFO at a small organization where I felt I could have an impact — this is it.
I should say winning the BBJ CFO of the year award. In all seriousness, every job I have done has been a highlight because they have been the steppingstone for what followed.
The highlight was being named CFO at Cabot. Cabot is a company with over 140 years of history and there have been many notable and capable leaders of the company. I am honored to be one of the current executive leaders and after working for many years, in various roles at Cabot, I was thrilled when I was offered this role.
In my current role, I managed the budget of a pediatric expansion project and contributed to increasing access to primary and preventative care for the medically underserved pediatric population in New Bedford. Expanding healthcare services in an underserved area can have a profound impact on the community, particularly for vulnerable populations like children. By effectively managing the budget, I was able to help allocate resources appropriately, control costs, and maximize the impact of the project within the available budget.
Being hired as the CFO for the Boch Center, which has been life changing and has allowed me to develop an appreciation for the arts. It is very rewarding to watch our patrons who leave a performance happier than when they arrived and to see the impact of our youth educational programs.
Landing the CFO gig in 2020 with LinkSquares was especially awesome. It was a great decision, professionally and personally. I would do it again 100 times in a heartbeat. It’s an amazing company to work at, and more importantly, an amazing group of people to be on the journey with. On a personal level, navigating the momentum from 2022’s period of hyper growth to establish a financially resilient infrastructure with the right resources and people to continue thriving and growing is gratifying. I’ve learned a lot about the value of anticipation, keeping an eye on the future, and also maintaining an open mind when considering business scenarios.
