Instacart president announces departure three months into role

The president of Instacart announced on Friday that she will step down at the end of the year, just three months after she took the tech company’s top job.

In a Facebook post, Carolyn Everson, the president of the digital app service that delivers groceries to customers, explained she wanted a break to reflect on her life and where she wanted to go next.

“My birthday present to myself is a real break while I dream up what’s next. Yes — this time, I will be taking time,” wrote Everson, who will turn 50 soon. “I know our time is short on this Earth and I know I want to keep making a difference and keep focusing on enlightened leadership and the importance of building strong cultures for people to thrive personally and professionally.”

Everson was a former Facebook executive, serving as the advertising chief for the company, now called Meta, for a decade.

Everson took over Instacart, which has a valuation of almost $40 billion, during a critical time — the tech company has been mulling an initial public offering.

Instacart has also been embroiled in controversy this year over its pay for and treatment of contractors who work with the digital app. That’s a similar fight happening at other relatively new digital app services, like DoorDash and Uber.

The digital app service contracts with more than 500,000 shoppers who pick up groceries for 9.6 million users. But the shoppers, also called riders, have been striking for more pay.