BigCommerce Appoints Russell Klein as its First-Ever Chief Development Officer

AUSTIN, Texas – February 22, 2018 – BigCommerce today announced that Russell Klein has been promoted to chief development officer after serving as the company’s senior vice president of corporate development for the last three years. In this expanded role, Klein will continue to lead global corporate and business development, and will also take on additional responsibility for driving the company’s strategy to create and scale new product and service areas for the benefit of BigCommerce’s merchants and the broader ecosystem alike.

“Russell has been an integral member of our leadership team since joining the company, significantly expanding our network and deepening relationships with our most strategic partners,” said Brent Bellm, CEO at BigCommerce. “As chief development officer, Russ will continue working closely with me and the senior leadership team to execute our vision to provide merchants the industry’s most extensible and open SaaS ecommerce platform.”

Among his numerous accomplishments, Klein spearheaded BigCommerce’s omnichannel strategy through building strategic partnerships with Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Google, Instagram, Square, Shopkeep and Springboard Retail to enable cross-channel selling and centralized management of product inventory within BigCommerce. Additionally, under Klein’s leadership BigCommerce has expanded partnerships with leading payment providers — including Apple Pay, PayPal, Visa, Adyen, Stripe and Klarna — to provide merchants early access to the industry’s most comprehensive suite of mobile wallets and payments solutions. Klein’s team also led a multi-year initiative to expand and integrate BigCommerce’s core platform with complementary enterprise-level solutions from companies like ShipperHQ, Bronto, Brightpearl and Handshake to meet the needs of the industry’s largest digital brands.

“Our merchants benefit from access to innovative technologies that power their continued success, and the ability to choose the partners that best meet their unique business needs,” said Russell Klein, chief development officer at BigCommerce. “We are committed to further expanding BigCommerce’s business footprint in a way that creates even greater platform value for our merchants.”

Prior to joining BigCommerce, Klein served as co-founder and chairman of Librify, co-founder and CEO of SendMe, and Executive Vice President of CNET Networks. He was also an Entrepreneur in Residence with General Catalyst Partners, one of the venture capital investors in BigCommerce.  

Alongside Klein’s appointment, MaryAnn Bekkedahl has been hired to join Klein’s team as senior vice president of business development, working out of New York City. In addition, Kevin McKeand has been promoted to vice president of strategic partnerships also on Klein’s team, after serving as senior director of business development for the past three years.