A year after assuming the role and initiating a slew of controversial changes, Lidiane Jones is out as CEO of Bumble Inc., the company announced Friday. Founder and executive chair Whitney Wolfe Herd will return to the role, starting in mid-March.
"I am deeply grateful for the transformative work Lidiane has led during such a pivotal time for Bumble, and her leadership has been instrumental in building a strong foundation for our future," Wolfe Herd said in a statement.
Jones is resigning for "personal reasons," the company said, and will officially leave in March. In her short time as CEO, she led an overhaul of the app, which changed how men and women initiate conversations on the app (it was built on the premise of women making the "opening move"). She also oversaw a marketing campaign that argued celibacy is not the solution to women's dating problems, which the company had to quickly remove and apologize for. Bumble Inc., which also includes the dating app Badoo, cut around 37% of its workforce last February as shares tumbled.
The overhaul didn't seem to work as intended: the company's stock cratered further in August after quarterly revenue and guidance for Q3 of 2024 came in below estimates. Shares were down by around 54% from the time Bumble allowed men to message first to the end of 2024.
Previously the CEO of Slack, Jones took over during a turbulent time for dating apps, and had initial plans "to focus on incorporating more AI into Bumble’s family of apps and driving more international growth," Fortune reported at the time. Shares were up briefly Friday morning on the news before leveling out.
In addition to the CEO shakeup, Anu Subramanian, the company's chief financial officer, and Selby Drummond, chief marketing officer, previously announced plans to leave in early 2025.
It's a return to form for Wolfe Herd, who founded the dating app company at age 24 and led it for nine years. In 2021, at the age of 31, she became the youngest woman to ever take a company public, becoming a self-made billionaire in the process.
She stepped down from the role of CEO in late 2023, eager to return to her "founder roots" and do more big-picture thinking. The company did not immediately respond to Fortune's request for comment on her return.
"As I step into the role of CEO, I’m energized and fully committed to Bumble’s success, our mission of creating meaningful, equitable relationships, and our opportunity ahead," she said in Friday's statement. "We have exciting innovation ahead for Bumble in this bold new chapter."
