Key Takeaways
Whether they make headlines or fly under the radar, corporate shake-ups abound over at Bumble.
One such case: In its April 17 proxy statement, Bumble announced Chief Legal Officer Elizabeth Monteleone has resigned, with Deirdre Runnette taking her position.
Monteleone served in various legal roles at Bumble for six years, including as Assistant General Counsel, until her promotion to Chief Legal Officer on June 12, 2024. She was promoted when her predecessor, Laura Franco — who also served as Compliance Officer — resigned in February, 2024.
Monteleone’s appointment came with a $100,000 signing bonus and a $2 million equity grant (which is split 50/50 with stock options and RSUs). In her role as Chief Legal Officer, Monteleone used her legal expertise and public platform to speak out about women’s reproductive rights, including at South by Southwest in March, just one month before her departure.
Her resignation, which was “mutually agreed to” with “good reason”, was made official on April 11.
With Monteleone’s resignation comes a new face: Deirdre Runnette, who brings prior experience as General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, and Chief People Officer at tech company Flexe, Inc. She also has leadership experience, as she served as Senior Vice President as well as General Counsel at Zulily, Inc.
Monteleone’s resignation and Runnette’s appointment come amid an ongoing period of uncertainty at Bumble. The company’s value has dropped 92% since it registered its IPO in 2021. Bumble’s founder, Whitney Wolfe Herd, recently returned to her former position as CEO in an attempt to right the ship.
Other leadership changes have marked Bumble’s transformational 2025, from Michael Affronti being appointed to Chief Product Officer to Ann Mather becoming the Chair of Bumble’s board of directors.
In the proxy statement, Wolfe Herd emphasized how the app is in the middle of a transformative time:
“2024 was a transformational year of strategic advancements, product innovation, and foundational work to strengthen our team and how we operate to drive success,” she said.
“As we continue this transformation, we are putting our members at the center of everything we do – strengthening our ecosystem, driving innovation, enhancing our revenue strategy, and rebuilding trust through new safety features,” she explained.
With Monteleone’s resignation, what we’re seeing at Bumble looks less like a corporate shake-up and more like an organizational earthquake. But Wolfe Herd insists that the recent flurry of leadership changes were made with an end-goal in mind:
“Every decision we make will be driven by one goal — bringing real love back to online dating, so it can lead to incredible, healthy love offline,” she said in an open letter to the Bumble Community.
More details about Bumble’s current financial situation, as well as its plans moving forward, are sure to come out during the app’s annual stockholders meeting on June 5, 2025.
