Airtree partner Elicia McDonald appointed CEO
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The news: Airtree has appointed partner Elicia McDonald as chief executive, with co-founder Craig Blair taking on the role of chair of the investment committee at the Sydney-based venture capital firm.
The context: McDonald joined Airtree as an associate in 2016.
The firm now manages roughly $2 billion, with portfolio companies including Canva, Employment Hero, Linktree, Go1, Pet Circle and SafetyCulture, and about 70% of its cheques written at pre-seed and seed stage.
McDonald will continue to invest and sit on the investment committee.
What they said: “These internal changes reflect both where Airtree is headed and the most significant platform shift in tech history we’re all living through.” an Airtree spokesperson said.
“Over the last 24 months, AI systems have gone from solving tasks that take a minute to handling work that takes a human a full day. The compounding effect of that shift on every company we back and on how we operate as a firm is profound. In markets moving this fast, pace and clarity of direction aren’t nice-to-haves; they’re how you win. It’s the bar we hold our portfolio companies to and the bar we hold ourselves to,” the spokesperson said.
“Elicia’s role as CEO is to create the conditions for the team to do their best work: clarity of direction, alignment across functions, and the organisational velocity to reach Airtree’s full potential.”
The sources: Aitree, Linkedin
