Press & Media
Have questions? We have answers! Contact us at
pr@zappos.com
The People Who Guide Our Purpose
Tony Hsieh
CEO
In 1999, at the age of 24, Tony Hsieh (pronounced Shay) sold LinkExchange, the company he co-founded, to Microsoft for $265 million. He then joined Zappos as an advisor and investor, and eventually became CEO, where he helped Zappos grow from almost no sales in 1999 to the multi-billion dollar company it is today. Back in 2009, the company was acquired by Amazon in 2009 in a deal valued at $1.2 billion on the day of closing. Tony has remained as CEO of Zappos, which operates independently of Amazon, and continues to help build Zappos as a company dedicated to customer service, company culture, and community.
Tony’s book, "Delivering Happiness", was published in 2010, and outlines his path from starting a worm farm to life at Zappos. Tony shows how a very different kind of corporate culture is a powerful model for achieving success and happiness. “Delivering Happiness”, debuted at #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list.
In addition to his responsibilities as CEO of Zappos.com, Tony helped start Downtown Project, a group committed to helping transform downtown Las Vegas into the most community-focused large city in the world. This transformation includes the relocation of the Zappos offices from Henderson, Nevada to what was the old City Hall in downtown Las Vegas.
Tony currently lives in an Airstream on half a city block right in the middle of downtown Vegas, with his dog Blizzy and pet alpaca who enjoys hanging out by the campfire every night.
Anne Mehlman
CFO
Anne Mehlman joined Zappos.com, inc. in November of 2016 as Chief Financial Officer. Prior to that, she worked at Crocs, Inc. as Vice President of Corporate Finance responsible for FP&A, Treasury, Business Intelligence, and IR. Prior to working at Crocs, Anne was Director of Finance at RSC Equipment rental, now United Rentals. Anne also held various financial roles at Corporate Express, now Staples, and Lockheed Martin. Since starting her career in finance, Anne has lived in many different cities in the US and abroad. Anne grew up in Durango, Colorado and graduated from the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs. She has two daughters ages 4 and 1. In her spare time Anne enjoys traveling, skiing, reading, drinking wine with friends, watching football with her husband, and playing with her girls.
Arun Rajan
COO
Arun Rajan is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Zappos.com, previously holding the company’s title of Chief Technology Officer (CTO) from 2009 to 2013. During his time as CTO, Arun led the creation and execution of Zappos’ technology and data strategy in the context of rapid business growth and scalability. More recently, he has played a key role in creating and operationalizing Zappos’ Best Customers business strategy to power long term, sustainable growth for the company.
Arun has been building and operating Internet applications since the mid ‘90s. His career outside Zappos has included roles as the CTO of One Kings Lane in San Francisco, cofounder and CTO of New York City’s Intent Media, CTO of Travelocity Europe and LastMinute.com in London, and cofounder and CTO of ITRadar.com in Minneapolis.
Christa Foley
Culture Advisor and Director of Insights
Christa Foley wears a few hats at Zappos.com. In addition to heading up Zappos Insights, she’s a champion for our culture, our brand vision, and (most importantly) our people. Her official external title is Culture Adviser & Director of Insights. Upon joining Zappos in 2004, Foley helped set up the recruiting program to scour the planet for people that are fun and a little weird. She also developed the Zappos Core Values Interview Assessment - a critical component to Zappos' belief in always hiring for culture fit above simply technical skills.
With Zappos Insights, she and her team work not to convince other companies to be like Zappos, but to inspire them to make work better and more fulfilling for themselves and their employees. Zappos Insights shares the Zappos philosophies on Company Culture, People, and Customer Service through various training programs, keynote speeches and tours.
Prior to Zappos, Christa worked for 8+ years in the recruiting and staffing industry with companies like Adecco and Eastridge. She holds a bachelor's in French and American Literature from the University of Vermont. #vermontmaplesyruprocks
Hollie Delaney
Head of People Operations
Hollie joined the Zappos family in 2006 and has been working in the field of human resources since 1996. She has helped lead the charge of changing the traditional company structure to one based on trust and distributed authority. Delaney has been pivotal in working to deliver happiness and provide the best place for employees to work. Prior to Zappos, Delaney served in different HR leadership capacities at both Marshall Retail Group and Vegas.com. She holds a bachelor’s in communication disorders and speech sciences from the University of Colorado.
Jamie Naughton
Chief of Staff
Jamie joined Zappos in 2004. As Chief of Staff she works directly with CEO Tony Hsieh, focusing on communications and the culture for which the company has become known. Throughout her tenure her role has been essential in creating and driving the architecture of the dynamic culture as well as focusing on culture R&D to ensure Zappos.com always stays relevant to both the employees and their customers. She also manages the work of telling the story of Zappos’ culture to the world. Whether through her role heading up the corporate communications team or as an external spokesperson, Jamie can be found traveling the country to work with world renowned companies, authors, researchers, and business leaders to help spread the concept that by focusing on your employees and customers, good companies can become legendary companies.
John Bunch
Technical Advisor to Zappos CEO
John joined Zappos.com in 2009 as a Software Developer after trying out High School math teaching and professional poker playing. He moved on to lead the Public API team and subsequently transitioned into the role of Technical Advisor to Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh. John led Zappos’ transition away from traditional hierarchy and to Holacracy, a flexible organization structure that moves more autonomy to teams and individuals. Coming out of the rollout of Holacracy, John transitioned to leading internal infrastructure and systems. Such systems include helping Zappos with decentralized flexible resource allocation, internal role marketplaces, and effective leveraging of productivity tools such as Asana, Slack, and GTD. John is a thought leader in the self-organization space and his work Beyond the Holacracy Hype – The overwrought claims and the actual promise of the next generation of self-managed teams was recently published in Harvard Business Review.
Rob Siefker
Sr. Director of Customer Loyalty
Starting his career with Zappos as a temporary call center employee, Rob has helped the team grow from 30 to over 500 employees. Rob joined Zappos in January of 2004 and is currently director for the Customer Loyalty Team. He has spent his entire career with Zappos providing the very best service for both customers and employees. Rob is a strong ambassador and promoter of the Zappos brand and its commitment to developing a world class culture. He has previously represented Zappos by speaking at conferences for IQPC, Frost & Sullivan, and Marcus Evans. He’s also been a guest speaker at Purdue University’s Center for Customer Driven Quality. Rob grew up in Denver, Colorado and later earned a BA in History from Santa Clara University in 2002. When Rob isn’t busy cultivating culture at Zappos, you can find him playing tennis, baseball, swimming, golf, hiking, football, soccer, basketball and skiing. Rob also loves playing guitar and singing.
Tyler Williams
Fungineer
Tyler Williams is the Lead Link of the Brand Aura Circle; a circle that specializes in creating Zappos’ unique and quirky persona via events, campaigns and experiences nationwide. Tyler is also the long-time company Fungineer, responsible for such popular internal events as “Boots and Shorts Thursdays” and “Tutu Tuesdays.” Prior to joining Zappos’ Customer Loyalty Team in 2011, Tyler did everything from production and construction to drumming for a rock band! To check out Tyler’s unique talents first hand, just take a look at his video cover letter here.