Seattle-based freight network startup Convoy has hired Sonia Jain as its new chief financial officer. She arrives from Cars.com, where she was also CFO.
Jain is the latest crucial hire Convoy has made to solidify its leadership team as the company charts its late-stage growth. In October, Convoy named former Paymentus general counsel John Morrow as its own general counsel to replace Diankha Linear, who left Convoy in May for a startup in California. Dorothy Li, formerly an executive at Amazon Web Services, took over the chief technology officer role in June from co-founder Grant Goodale, who moved over to managing Convoy's carrier marketplace.
"The company obviously was looking for someone to step into this role, and as part of their search process, they reached out to me," Jain said. "As I started learning more about the business, I was really just blown away by the strength and also the passion of the management team."
Jain joined Cars.com as CFO in 2020. Before Cars.com, she spent 10 years at Redbox and its former parent company, Outerwall, including almost four years as Redbox's CFO.
Jain, who currently lives in Cincinnati but spent about eight years in Seattle before the pandemic, said her new role will include finance, accounting and treasury functions.
Jain said Convoy is focused on growing its business, and an initial public offering is not in the immediate plans. She added that she plans to listen and learn during her early days at Convoy and will begin her new role later this month.
Jain will report to Mark Okerstrom, Convoy's chief operating officer, who has served as acting CFO since December 2020. Okerstrom was previously the CEO at Expedia before stepping down in 2019 as part of an organizational shakeup.
The finance team at Convoy consists of about 30 to 40 people, Jain estimated. On Convoy's website, the company has open finance roles in both payroll and accounting.
Convoy, founded in 2015, offers a marketplace where shippers can access trucking companies, called carriers, and carriers can find and bid on freight loads through an app. The company aims to reduce the number of empty miles carriers drive while connecting its shippers, which include Unilever and the Home Depot, with a larger network of carriers. The company raised $400 million in 2019 and announced a valuation of $2.7 billion. It has roughly 1,200 employes.
As for what her experience brings to her new role at Convoy, Jain said both Redbox and Cars.com were focused on using technology to change brick-and-mortar industries.
"I see a lot of that similarity in what Convoy is trying to do in terms of bringing technology to an industry that maybe hasn't had as much innovation until recently," Jain said.
