PICKUP, an enterprise-grade, last-mile delivery solution for leading retailers, commercial, and industrial businesses, today announced it has named Brian Kava as the company’s new chief executive officer. Kava takes over the role of CEO from Brenda Stoner, founder and leader of the company through eight years of growth and innovation. Stoner will remain with PICKUP as the company’s founder and will continue to focus on the company’s innovation.
Kava joined PICKUP in September 2021 as head of sales and marketing and quickly began making positive contributions to the organization and its processes. His team-oriented, results-focused leadership style makes him a natural fit to take the helm as CEO of PICKUP. Prior to PICKUP, he served as president and general manager at Acosta, Inc. in one of its largest growth divisions.
Kava is a recognized leader with 20 years of experience in generating consumer and brand awareness, maximizing product visibility, and developing sales and marketing strategies for some of the world’s most renowned brands including Walmart, Google, Amazon, Home Depot, Whirlpool, Nike, and Microsoft. He has spearheaded multiple operational transformations, developed technology platforms into industry leading differentiators, and maintains an uncompromising focus on high-quality standards, employee-centric culture and customer satisfaction.
As PICKUP’s new CEO, Kava will be focused on leading the company toward three major milestones, including scalable growth, technological differentiation, and best-in-class operations.
Scalable Growth
After a successful $15M Series B funding round in 2021, PICKUP hired over 130 employees at its company headquarters, further building out its sales, tech, and customer service teams.
Under Kava’s leadership, the company plans to double its employee base, adding additional leaders and subject-matter experts to support its partners across the retail, commercial and industrial verticals. It also plans to expand its services beyond the 80 U.S. service areas PICKUP currently operates in.
Tech Differentiation
As CEO, Kava will lead the evolving technology strategy for PICKUP to both simplify and enhance how it orchestrates its solution for its partners. His plans include allocating the proper resources to create new intuitive features that allow for increased support during the delivery process. These developments will enhance the solution’s analytics and reporting capabilities and continuously evolve its platform, PICKUP Fusion, to solve new and ongoing last-mile delivery pain points.
Best-in-Class Operations
To expand on PICKUP’s exemplary delivery pro program, Kava will focus on improving the company’s best-in-class operations with a customer-driven focus, delivering the best possible experience for partners. Initiatives include developing enhanced education modules for its fully-vetted fleet of delivery pros to provide curated delivery experiences for partners and consumers.
“We are thrilled to have Brian lead the next phase of growth for PICKUP,” said Stoner. “His expertise and experience in transforming technology strategies and unlocking future growth opportunities make him a natural fit as CEO, and I am confident he will play a critical role in helping PICKUP reach the next phase of the company’s trajectory.”
“Brenda has done a tremendous job of creating a company that focuses on technology and our employee-centric mission, value and purpose,” said Kava. “Her dedication has paved the way to helping so many organizations win the last-mile touchpoint within the customer journey. I look forward to building upon this foundation to create a growth strategy for PICKUP that is organized, sustainable, and adaptable.”
