Dive Brief:

• Instacart announced two new appointments to its board of directors on Wednesday: Meredith Kopit Levien, president and CEO of The New York Times Company; and Lily Sarafan, co-founder and executive chair of Home Care Assistance.
• Kopit Levien brings experience in business strategy, leading global operations and heading up teams to scale digital products, Instacart noted in its announcement, while Sarafan adds experience in building consumer marketplaces and managing thousands of frontline workers. 
• The two appointees and CEO Fidji Simo will bring the number of women on Instacart’s board to three out of nine.

Dive Insight:

The appointment of Kopit Levien and Sarafan to Instacart's board come as the e-commerce company looks to keep millions of shoppers using its platform and also offer new services for retailers.

The company will look to Kopit Levien's experience building The New York Times subscriber base as Instacart aims to add value to its Express membership. The digital firm gained droves of new members during the pandemic, but direct competitors like DoorDash as well as some of the retailers it partners with are trying to entice those same shoppers with their own membership programs.

Kopit Levien directs The New York Times' business strategy and leads its global operations. She previously served as chief operating officer at the company, and prior to that held various roles at Forbes, including publisher and chief revenue officer.

"Meredith's expertise and passion lies in launching and scaling digital products with leading subscription models," Simo said in the announcement. "Her unique perspective will serve as a guiding force as we continue to enhance our service and deliver even more value to customers, particularly through our own membership offering, Instacart Express."

Sarafan, meanwhile, has scaled Home Care Assistance, which offers senior care services, from a startup to a company with more than 10,000 North American employees. Instacart noted that her experience growing that business, managing thousands of frontline workers and managing consumer marketplaces will be an asset to the company.

Instacart has made a number of high-profile additions to its board this year. Fidji Simo, who ran the team behind Facebook’s app, joined Instacart’s board in January before she was tapped in July to be the CEO, replacing Apoorva Mehta, who became executive board chairman. Earlier this year, Instacart added Barry McCarthy, who was previously chief financial officer at Spotify and Netflix, and tech IPO veteran Frank Slootman, chairman and CEO of enterprise software specialist Snowflake. 

Instacart’s board also includes Daniel Sundheim, founder and chief information officer at D1 Capital Partners, who joined last year. Michael Moritz, managing member at Sequoia Capital, and Jeff Jordan, managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz, joined the board in 2013 and in 2014, respectively, after their companies each led funding rounds for Instacart. 

Instacart has been building out its board of directors as it undergoes a series of changes, including top hires with experience at companies including Facebook, Microsoft, LinkedIn and YouTube and two acquisitions of technology companies as it readies for an initial public offering.