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Naeem Ishaq is leaving his role as chief financial officer of bulk e-commerce company Boxed.
Ishaq joined Boxed in 2016, following a stint as head of finance, strategy and risk at Square. A Boxed spokesperson confirmed Ishaq’s departure, and sent the following statement from CEO Chieh Huang:
Naeem is a world-class financial talent. Over the last two years, he has been indispensable in helping build and grow Boxed to what it is today. We will miss his energy, focus and enthusiasm for our company. Perhaps his greatest legacy is building a well-versed finance team that will continue to focus on evolving the Boxed platform.
I want to thank Naeem for his contribution to Boxed and wish him well on his future endeavors.
Boxed says it’s currently looking for another CFO.
“The last two years I’ve spent at Boxed have been some of the most thrilling of my career,” Ishaq said in a statement (also provided by Boxed). “We achieved much of what I set out to accomplish when I joined. Boxed … has tremendous opportunities ahead and I look forward to rooting [for] them as they continue to grow.”
The news comes less than a week after Bloomberg reported that Boxed had rejected a $400 million acquisition offer from Kroger. Other retailers, including Amazon, Target and Costco, were also rumored to be interested.
When I called Ishaq, he said he’s joining a company in the financial technology industry, but declined get more specific (I guess that’ll be announced separately). He also said his departure is unconnected to those acquisition stories.
“This is more about an opportunity that came up that frankly, I’m super excited about,” he said. “Boxed is extremely well-positioned … I don’t think [my departure] diminishes that at all. It’s a personal choice for me.”