Shop.org executive Silverman resigns to found startup

Scott Silverman, executive director at Shop.org, is leaving his post August 13 to co-found an e-commerce startup. Shop.org is the National Retail Federation's (NRF) digital division focused on e-commerce. Silverman joined NRF in 1999, and has served as executive director of its digital division since 2001.

“I've been with Shop.org for 11 years between NRF and Shop.org, and in that time I've been on sidelines of industry and now I want to be a practitioner and give it a shot,” he explained. “I've been around so much innovation and entrepreneurship, and it really pulls you in. I didn't want to wake up one day and regret not having done it.”

NRF president and CEO Matthew Shay will work with Shop.org's board of directors to find Silverman's replacement. Silverman said the organization is considering working with a recruiter.

In the remaining month that he will be at Shop.org, Silverman plans to continue guiding the strategy behind the Shop.org Annual Summit planned for September, as he has always done, he said.

The biggest challenge to the new enterprise, he said, is keeping up with the rapidly changing e-commerce landscape, though the pace of innovation is what created the opportunity to move on.

“The choice to move on was a series of things coming together,” Silverman said. “There is a tremendous amount of innovation in the industry as well as a lot of funding of ideas. Things all came together at same time and created this opportunity.”