Eckert joins at a time when Mirakl is expanding its e-commerce offerings, including software for sellers to upload their catalogs and coordinate the online venues where they sell their goods, new advertising options, as well as new software for business-to-business sellers. Mirakl’s Boston base can be traced back to a decision more than a decade ago by Mirakl executive Kamal Kirpalani to persuade co-chief executive Adrien Nussenbaum to make the Boston area its launchpad in the United States instead of New York. (Kirpalani, now chief revenue officer, has fond memories of attending Boston University as an undergrad.) Mirakl relocated its local corporate office from Somerville to 100 Summer St. in downtown Boston two years ago, and 108 of the company’s roughly 800 employees are based there today. Eckert led Rethink Robotics before joining Bain Capital Ventures for a stint as an executive in residence in 2019, and then was hired by Walmart to oversee a portfolio of the retail giant’s tech ventures. That work ended last year, and his former colleagues at Bain Capital Ventures suggested he check out Mirakl for his next act. (Bain Capital Ventures is among Mirakl’s investors.) He found Mirakl’s potential for growth, particularly in the United States, to be appealing. “I was interested in getting into a Boston-based CEO position running an interesting business [and] this one was by far the most interesting,” Eckert said. “I knew that this was the best technology in the industry.”
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