Change.org Expands Product Team with New Chief Product Officer John Yurcisin and Head of Growth Erika Warren
Today, Change.org announced two executive leadership team appointments designed to take the world’s largest tech platform for social change into its next phase of growth. John Yurcisin is joining as the organization’s Chief Product Officer and Erika Warren is joining as the new Head of Growth. Both recognized product leaders, Yurcisin and Warren will partner with the Change.org executive team to expand the organization from a single product company focused on petitions to a civic infrastructure platform, scaling the technology platform’s capacity to empower people everywhere to use their voice, money, and time to build healthier, more participatory and responsive societies.
“We’re at a pivotal point as a company that has scaled its reach across 196 countries to serve more than half a billion users. To continue to meet the demand, we need to ensure the best leadership is in place for driving our incredibly talented and motivated product team toward achieving their ambitions for the platform,” said Nick Allardice, CEO of Change.org. “We have more strategic hires planned throughout the year that will further up level our ambitious teams as we remain laser focused on increasing global impact through user-centric technology expansion.”
As Chief Product Officer, Yurcisin, formerly General Manager across multiple Amazon businesses, will define Change.org’s long term product direction, define its overall product architecture in partnership with other functions and ensure the success of new high impact initiatives. He will also be responsible for the organization’s product and go-to-market functions, including Product Management, User Experience, Growth, Marketing, Analytics and Program Management.
“I’m both humbled and thrilled by this opportunity as it presents a compelling challenge for me both personally and professionally,” said Yurcisin. “I am excited by the Change.org technology platform and its ability to deliver solutions to help billions of people around the world advance very real, sometimes life changing, societal issues.”
Warren joins the team as the Head of Growth, leading product and promotional channels to maximize key metric performance. As a user and membership funded organization, this role will help Change.org continue to offer free services to billions of users, including those in the most marginalized communities. This role exemplifies the organization’s commitment to building to a clear and ethical path to growth solutions, while ensuring user and member contributions are maximized in order to fuel the greatest sustainable impact for the estimated 70,000+ causes and campaigns supported by the site each month.
“I’m incredibly excited to be a part of the next phase of growth, and to increase the massive impact the organization has across the globe,” said Warren. “Change.org is one of the most important social impact organizations of modern times. To be chartered with helping more people create and participate in activism is compelling. I am excited and proud to join an excellent team doing such purposeful work.”
Under this new product team leadership and in collaboration with the Change.org engineering team lead by CTO Elaine Zhou, Change.org plans to continue its platform enhancement strategy with a focus on modern infrastructure centered around big data and user-centric product expansion. These expansions will serve to sustain and scale a platform through which people can access digital tools, human-powered services and information to achieve institutional civic change.
About Change.org
Change.org is the world’s largest tech platform for people-powered, social change. More than half a billion people across more than 196 countries use our technology-driven petition and campaign tools to speak up on issues they’re passionate about. Approximately 70,000 petitions are created and supported on our platform every month, with 1.7 million new people joining our global network of users every week. People on Change.org have powered tens of thousands of campaign victories worldwide, and more are winning every week.
Every day, our users collaborate to organize on local, national and global issues; hold corporations to account; and demand action from decision makers at the highest levels of government and business. Our platform is free to use, open to all, and completely independent because it’s funded by the people who use it. Our independence makes us a trusted resource for decision makers, who turn to the platform to hear from and respond to the communities they represent.
The nonprofit Change.org Foundation oversees both the Change.org Public Benefit Corporation (PBC), a wholly owned corporate subsidiary focused on technology, innovation and growth; and the Change.org charitable programs focused on empowering the most marginalized people and communities globally. This hybrid structure of two mutually supporting organizations enables us to combine the ambition and growth trajectory of a tech company with the mission-focused stewardship of a nonprofit.
As an organization, Change.org is committed to providing the tools, resources and support needed to empower anyone, anywhere to create the change they want to see in the world.
