Toronto-based password management company 1Password announced Thursday that high-profile former Shopify executive Erin Zipes has accepted the newly created role of chief legal officer.
Building on the momentum of the company’s highly successful $620-million series-C funding round earlier this year, the largest in Canadian history to date, Zipes’ appointment fills another important role at the 1Password executive leadership table as the company continues to pursue its high-growth strategy.
“Erin’s commitment to building a diverse, inclusive and business-focused legal function, as well as experience leading Shopify through their IPO, will be essential to fuel our trajectory,” 1Password CEO Jeff Shiner said in a statement.
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Zipes joins 1Password six months after leaving Shopify, where the McGill University law school graduate spent more than seven years and played a key role in building and leading the e-commerce powerhouse’s legal team from pre-IPO through the pandemic. She originally invested in 1Password as part of the angel investor group Backbone Angels.
Drawn to the company’s mission and its product, not only as a user but also as an investor, Zipes said the opportunity to join 1Password “ticked all the boxes” for what she was looking for, in particular the chance to build out and scale the legal team at a world-class, fast-growing tech company.
But she was clear that the fact that she will have “a seat at the table” reporting directly to Shiner was a critical factor.
“I feel like I am really part of the team and part of the team that is helping to keep people safe,” said Zipes, who will continue to be based in the nation’s capital. “Even though I do it as a lawyer and not as an engineer and developer, we all bring our skills to solve the problems and make the whole greater than the sum of its parts.
“When you have different viewpoints and different backgrounds at the table, you just get better output and better outcomes.”
Another notable Canadian, actor and businessman Ryan Reynolds, also invested in 1Password’s series-C funding round. Reynolds also starred in a commercial for the company that was produced by his creative agency, Maximum Effort.
