Christina Whittaker, who made her mark at data analytics powerhouse Alteryx, is about to embark on a new challenge with another industry disruptor.
Later this month, she’ll be joining DoorDash, the nation’s No. 1 food delivery provider. For Whittaker, the leap feels natural as both companies are driven by innovative spirit.
“Much like Alteryx, DoorDash is an innovator in its space,” she told the Business Journal.
“They are moving fast, trying new things, developing new technologies. It’s all very exciting.”
Whittaker, a lawyer specializing in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) matters, also points out the two technology firms operate in very different fields.
She won the Rising Star award at the Business Journal’s General Counsel Awards honorees presentation last November when she was vice president, corporate legal at Alteryx. She has since left the company and will be starting a new position Oct. 21 as associate general counsel, corporate securities at DoorDash.
While at Alteryx, she helped the company go public as it climbed the ranks of Orange County’s most sought-after companies. It became a darling of investors as it popped over the $10 billion market cap for a time.
Stock Falls, Then PE Buy
Private equity firms Clearlake Capital Group and Insight Partners last December announced a deal to buy Alteryx for $4.4 billion, factoring in about $1 billion in debt, after its phenomenal growth had started to fade.
With Alteryx back in private hands as of March, Whittaker may not have found much more room for rising given her legal expertise.
“The core of my practice is really the public company work, doing the SEC reporting and analyzing SEC rules and stock exchange rules and regulations, and things like that,” Whittaker said.
She also oversaw other matters at Alteryx, including mergers and acquisitions, stock administration, corporate governance and compliance.
At Alteryx, she had “robust discussions” with the product team, the sales team and the information security team to be able to advise across the business.
Whittaker is a graduate of UCLA Law School and was a lawyer with Los Angeles-founded law firm O’Melveny & Myers from 2010 until 2016. She left the firm to join Alteryx.
‘Congrats, Christina!’
And what does she imagine if she had stayed at Alteryx?
“I don’t think that I would have had quite the momentum that I had before when we were working very closely together on a quarterly basis,” she said of her former colleagues at Alteryx.
“I did find that I missed that core practice, my public company work.”
After the sale of Alteryx, Whittaker stayed to clean up various legal matters she handled for the company, co-founded by OC super-entrepreneur Dean Stoecker.
She left Alteryx in September after nearly eight years.
Stoecker himself congratulated her on her move to San Francisco-based DoorDash (Nasdaq: DASH).
“Congrats Christina! You are the best,” he commented on her LinkedIn page.
Libby Duane Adams, another Alteryx co-founder, wrote: “Congratulations Christina Whittaker and well deserved! Thank you for all you do for our customers and our amazing Alteryx TEAM!!!”
Whittaker appreciates all the various positive comments.
“They all are very supportive. They understand the journey of someone who does public company work,” she said.
Alteryx itself has moved its headquarters back to the more modest Park Place office complex near John Wayne Airport in Irvine, from its palatial space in Spectrum Terrace.
Remote Work for DoorDash
“It will be a little bit of a more narrow scope than what I had at Alteryx. But it will be around the topics that I really enjoy doing as part of my practice,” she said of her new post at DoorDash.
“I’m very excited about it.”
She will be working remotely from Orange County, with regular visits to company headquarters in San Francisco. She lives in Lake Forest with her family.
While DoorDash is best known for delivering restaurant meals and groceries, the third-party delivery provider also facilitates the delivery of pet supplies, gifts and flowers.