Seattle-based tax software company Avalara (NYSE: AVLR) has named Ee Lyn Khoo as its new chief people officer.
Khoo is joining Avalara from Redfin, where she was also the chief people officer. She spent roughly a year at the Seattle-based real estate tech company before leaving in January, according to her LinkedIn page.
“Ee Lyn is a talented human resources leader who has led and scaled employee programs for global technology companies," Scott McFarlane, CEO and co-founder of Avalara, said in a news release. “Her deep experience leading global people and culture programs and creating a welcoming and inclusive culture will support Avalara’s one-of-a-kind workplace.”
Before Redfin, Khoo spent roughly 13 years at Amazon, according to her LinkedIn page, where she was most recently a vice president of human resources. She spent about six years at General Mills in different human resources positions prior to Amazon.
According to an Avalara spokesperson, Khoo is taking over the chief people officer role from Shaunna Duffy, the interim chief people officer who took over for Kathleen Weslock. Weslock was the chief people officer from 2020 to 2021.
Khoo is joining Avalara at a crucial time for the company, which has been on an acquisition spree over the past year and a half. Avalara has acquired six companies since the start of December 2020, including three since the start of October.
Ross Tennenbaum, Avalara's chief financial officer, said the acquisitions help Avalara offer new products to clients.
"We typically get into new areas starting with M&A," he told the Business Journal previously. "Our sales tax returns business, which is our second-largest product line, started with M&A. Our certificate management business, which is our third-largest product line, started with M&A."
Avalara, a tax compliance technology company founded in 2004, offers products in sales and use tax, consumer use tax and international tax. The company went public in 2018. According to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Avalara had 4,465 total full-time employees at the end of last year, including 2,323 in the U.S.
