Chris Tsakalakis

Chris Tsakalakis is the CEO of Kiva, an international nonprofit that crowdfunds loans for underserved people in over 70 countries. Chris has been a technology CEO and advisor for more than 25 years with experience developing and leading consumer technology businesses.

Before Kiva, Chris was the CEO of Vivino, the world’s largest online wine marketplace and most downloaded wine app. At Vivino, Chris’ team grew wine sales 2.3x in 2 years.

Before Vivino, Chris was as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Benchmark Capital. Prior to that, Chris served as President of StubHub, the world’s largest online ticket marketplace. Under his nearly 8 years of leadership, StubHub grew the value of tickets sold from $400 million to $3.2 billion while doubling customer satisfaction and increasing brand awareness by over 50%.  Because of StubHub’s influence on the entertainment industry, Chris was named to the Sports Business Journal’s 2011, 2012 and 2013 lists of the 50 most influential people in the sports business, the Billboard 2012 and 2013 Power 100 lists and the 2010 and 2011 Huffington Post Sports Game Changer lists.

Chris led the acquisition of StubHub by eBay and began running StubHub in 2007, when the acquisition was finalized. Chris was an eBay Marketplaces executive from 2003 to 2014.  Prior to joining eBay, Chris was a managing partner at Trefo, a consulting firm focused on high-technology startup companies. Prior to Trefo, he held management positions at two e-commerce startups, and was also a consultant with Bain & Company.

Chris graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.  He is chairman of the board of the Western States Region of the American Heart Association and in his spare time is a fitness, cooking and automotive enthusiast.