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Zander Lurie has left GoPro, where he headed its entertainment efforts, to become CEO of survey startup SurveyMonkey. He will replace former Hewlett-Packard exec Bill Veghte, who is leaving due to “differences of opinion on strategy” with investors.
That said and because this is Silicon Valley (hugs all around!), Lurie will join the board of GoPro and Veghte will do the same at SurveyMonkey, which has called itself a decision-making and data insights platform and is profitable.
At GoPro, the former CNET CFO and CBS corp dev exec has been working on developing the content users of the video devices make into another revenue business. GoPro, as evidenced by today’s announcement that fourth quarter results will be weaker than expected and that layoffs are planned, has had a hard time of late keeping up the momentum after its IPO.
Lurie had already served as interim leader of SurveyMonkey, after the tragic death of David Goldberg last year, becoming its executive chairman. Former Facebook exec and SurveyMonkey director David Ebersman will now become board chairman.
Both Lurie and Veghte were close friends of Goldberg and Veghte was named CEO in July after an extensive search. By the way, HP CEO Meg Whitman also is on the SurveyMonkey board, as is Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who is Goldberg’s widow.
Veghte was not specific as to the differences he had with SurveyMonkey investors, which include Tiger Global Management, Spectrum Equity, T. Rowe Price, Morgan Stanley Asset Management, Baillie Gifford, Google Capital and Social Capital.
“We had a variety of options and, as I worked them through, the investors wanted to pursue a different path,” he said. “We felt the best way for me to serve was as a board member and I am super excited to help Zander.”
Lurie was equally vague. “There is nothing spectacular here in terms of differences,” he said. “We just opted for a different strategic direction and have a core business that is unbelievably healthy.”
Lurie said that his first priority was focused on delivering on that mystery strategic direction and added, after I asked, that there was eventually an opportunity to go public for SurveyMonkey.
As to the impact of Goldberg’s death on SurveyMonkey, he noted that “it was a tough year and the tragedy took its toll — but we have grown and formed a stronger bond, too.”
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This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
