After holding multiple C-suite level positions with the company over the past more than decade and a half, the CEO of Match Group is stepping down.

The Dallas-based dating app giant’s board of directors announced that Shar Dubey is resigning from her position at the end of the month, but will stay on with the company as a board director and advisor.

“As a director and an advisor, I will have the flexibility to stay close to aspects of the business I love—product and strategy,” Dubey said in a statement.

Mobile game company president to take the lead

Stepping into Dubey’s role is Bernard Kim, who currently serves as the president of mobile game maker Zynga, where he is credited with boosting Zynga’s market cap since 2016, leading to Zynga’s pending $12.7 billion acquisition by Take-Two Interactive. Kim has also served as a senior VP of mobile publishing at Electronic Arts.

“Bernard has operated a very similar business to ours: a portfolio of brands, in global markets, at various stages of growth,” Match’s board wrote in its most recent financial report. “He has successfully driven terrific results while focusing on their mission of connecting people through fun games. At Match Group, he will build on our mission of connecting people through technology to find dates, love, and relationships.”

Dubey’s legacy at Match

Shar Dubey is stepping down as CEO of Match Group [Photo: Match Group]

The change in leadership is set for May 31. Dubey said the move will allow more time to focus on what she calls the “give back” chapter of her life. Dubey joined Match in 2016, holding various leadership roles, including acting as the COO of Match brand Tinder and president of Match Group, before taking over the CEO role from Mandy Ginsberg in early 2020.

In her time as CEO, Dubey oversaw a number of big moves for Match, which owns brands like Hinge, PlentyOfFish, and OkCupid, including the company’s separation from its former parent company IAC in July 2020 and its nearly $1.73 billion acquisition of South Korean social networking company Hyperconnect last February.

Match sees revenue grow in Q1

The leadership change comes as Match Group, listed on Nasdaq under the ticker MTCH, released its Q1 earnings report. It said its revenue grew 20% over the prior year’s quarter to $799 million, with nearly 100 million monthly active users of its brand globally. The company’s board also announced plans to buy back 12.5 million outstanding shares of Match Group stock. The Dubey announcement saw Match’s stock price fall by a little more than 6% at $74.23 per share in after-hours trading as of about 5:30 pm CST.

“In the current environment, we continue to control what we can, and that’s executing on our product roadmaps,” Match wrote in the report. “As we look to the future, it is with the recognition that dating apps need to provide different experiences for different people and continue to evolve along with overall online behaviors. We expect to continue to build new apps and evolve our current portfolio, as we have been doing with live video, video chat, and audio chat.”

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