Flexport Drama Spotlights Petersen’s Role

It’s day 3 of the Flexport CEO shakeup saga, which seems the perfect set up for a corporate TV drama, if only Hollywood writers weren’t on strike. Today’s developments included Flexport founder and once-again CEO Ryan Petersen not-so-subtly criticizing the management of Dave Clark, the former Amazonian ousted as Flexport CEO on Wednesday after a year in the job. Petersen tweeted today that he was rescinding 75 job offers for new positions at Flexport and had “no ideas why” the hires were made or why Flexport had “over 200 open roles on our website.”

No ideas? Where has Petersen been for the past six months, since he stepped down as co-CEO with Clark and became executive chairman? That title usually denotes someone who is somewhat engaged, as opposed to a non-executive chairman who is really part time. True, Petersen joined Founders Fund in mid July as a partner, so perhaps he’s been distracted since then. But that was just two months ago. When Petersen let Clark take the wheel, did he get out of the car? Given that Petersen is the founder, it’s a little hard to believe he didn’t know what Clark was up to.