Canva poaches Zoom CFO Kelly Steckelberg as IPO speculation heats up

The tech giant has recruited Zoom CFO Kelly Steckelberg to replace its former finance boss Damien Singh, who left amid a scandal.

Canva co-founders Cameron Adams, Cliff Obrecht and Melanie Perkins.

Canva has poached Zoom chief financial officer Kelly Steckelberg as the tech group readies for a highly speculated IPO in the US.

Ms Steckelberg’s appointment as chief financial officer comes nine months after the company’s former finance boss Damien Singh departed amid a major scandal.

During her seven years as Zoom’s finance boss, Ms Steckelberg helped lead the video calling software company through the pandemic and a highly successful listing on Wall Street’s Nasdaq index in April 2020.

She has also held senior roles at Cisco and PeopleSoft, and was chief executive at online dating company Zoosk.

Ms Steckelberg will join Canva at an as-yet unspecified date, working from recently opened Austin campus in Texas and reporting to co-founder and chief executive Melanie Perkins.

The graphic design software company recently reached $2.5bn in annual revenue from its 220 million monthly active users, valuing it at $49bn.

Canva co-founders Cameron Adams, Cliff Obrecht and Melanie Perkins. Picture: Supplied

It has hired more than 1000 staff in 2024 as it prepares for an expected listing on the Nasdaq, rolls out more artificial intelligence-powered tools and embeds Leonardo. Ai – which it acquired in July – into the company.

Co-founder Cliff Obrecht said Canva was thrilled to welcome Ms Steckelberg, who he described as a “strategic thinker” with “proven expertise in scaling enterprise companies”.

“As we continue doubling down on empowering every team and workplace to communicate visually, we’re thrilled to also welcome Kelly to the team as our new Chief Financial Officer,” he said.

Ms Steckelberg, who spent seven years at Zoom based in Silicon Valley in the US prior to the appointment, said she was a long-term fan of Canva.

“I’ve been an admirer of the team, product and mission for a number of years now, and I’m eager to have the opportunity to work alongside Melanie, Cliff, Cameron and the team to continue empowering every person and organisation to achieve their goals. I can’t wait to see what we achieve together,” she said.

Kelly Steckelberg has been hired as Canva’s chief financial officer. Picture: Douglas Zimmerman

“Their passion, creativity, innovation and remarkable growth are the hallmark of a truly generational company, and I’m looking forward to being part of their journey.”

In October, Mr Obrecht said the company was making solid progress on its goal to hit one billion active monthly customers and its user base had exceeded 200 million.

“We’ve added 100 million in the last two years. And when you compare our growth over the last three months, we’re orders of magnitude bigger,” he said.

“At some point we’ll IPO. There’s no big rush. It will happen in the coming years, no doubt. But it won’t happen this year,” he said.

Canva is yet to reveal the outcome of its investigation into Mr Singh, who The Australian understands denies the allegations published online.

The company had previously said Mr Singh had agreed to leave the company before a public listing, but that was expedited in February when allegations of inappropriate behaviour surfaced online.

A Canva spokesman declined to reveal the nature of the allegations that surrounded Mr Singh’s resignation, but said it had a “zero-tolerance policy for inappropriate behaviour”.

Damien Singh at Canva’s office in Surry Hills. Picture: Simon Bullard

It is understood that the $49bn graphic design company launched an investigation into Mr Singh after it became aware of concerning behaviour raised via an external online jobs platform.

Mr Singh stepped down before the investigation could be finalised.

“Creating a safe environment for everyone is our number one priority,” a Canva spokesman said.

“We have a zero-tolerance policy for inappropriate behaviour, and we’re fully committed to thoroughly investigating and actioning any instances of this.”

Originally published as Canva poaches Zoom CFO Kelly Steckelberg as IPO speculation heats up