Tune in to this inspiring episode as Jen Ford shares highlights of an impressive career and the pivotal decisions that helped her build confidence, discover her passions and ultimately, lay a solid runway for future growth opportunities. As Jen reveals, it's all in your mindset!
Jen is a seasoned executive with a background in e-commerce, retail, travel, and technology. During her career, Jen has worked in both public and private companies, from start-up to Fortune 100. She has led successful teams in a broad range of functions, including strategy, finance, investor relations, business intelligence, revenue management, and human resources. Notable roles include her position as Chief Commercial Officer & CFO at TurnKey Vacation Rentals (2nd largest VR property manager in the US), head of Finance at Snap Kitchen (an omni-channel, prepared food concept with 45 retail locations in three states), head of Investor Relations and a member of the IPO team at HomeAway ($3B+ market cap), and multiple overseas assignments in Europe and Asia with Dell.
Jen has been active in the boardroom since 2015 and has experience leading audit and compensation committee discussions on behalf of management. Jen is adept in scaling companies from early stages to maturity and has extensive experience guiding management teams on balancing growth and profitability, building critical operational infrastructure, and creating financial discipline. She has played a key role in helping start-ups gain traction through partnerships and has been a core member of the launch team for commercial agreements with Starbucks, Whole Foods, and Aramark (Snap Kitchen), and Marriott (TurnKey). Jen has an extensive fund-raising history, having brought in more than $125M of equity and debt while in the CFO seat, in addition to the $750M raised while leading Investor Relations. She has been involved in more than 15 acquisitions, including HomeAway’s acquisition by Expedia for $3.9B and TurnKey’s acquisition by Vacasa.