Slate co-founder Stewart Butterfield to leave the company in January

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Slate co-founder Stewart Butterfield to leave the company in January

According to the company's owner, Stewart Butterfield, co-founder and chief executive officer of Slack Technologies, will leave his position in January.

Butterfield helped set up Slack as a workplace communication tool during its early establishment in 2013 and has been central to the company's growth over the last few years. In December 2020, Salesforce became the largest shareholder of Slack after buying the app for $27.7 billion.

The co-founder's departure came days after Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor announced he would leave the company. Taylor was one of the key people in the deal to buy Slack last year, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The company will replace Butterfield with the current VP GM of Digital Experience Clouds, Lidiane Jones, next year. The leadership at Slack, as well as the app's functionality, has remained the same since the Salesforce acquisition.

Stewart is an amazing leader who created an amazing, beloved company in Slack, a Salesforce spokeswoman said in a statement. He has helped lead the successful integration of Slack into Salesforce and today Slack is woven into the Salesforce Customer 360 platform.

Stewart was instrumental in selecting Lidiane Jones as the next Slack CEO to lead it into its next chapter, the spokesperson said. Lidiane is a strong background in customer and enterprise tech and has been a part of Salesforce's leadership for over three years. We are grateful for Stewart and excited for Lidiane as she takes over the reins of Slack. Butterfield said in an internal message that he plans to focus on learning new things and spending time with his family. The photo-sharing technology purchased by Yahoo was co-founded by the billionaire entrepreneur.