Ridecell expands leadership team with two new executive hires

Ridecell Inc., a carsharing, ridesharing and autonomous ridehailing platform for new mobility operators, announced two new additions to its executive team.

Fernando Ruarte has been appointed Vice President of Engineering, managing global teams developing Ridecell customer and mobility platforms. Gelena Sachs was named Vice President of People, responsible for the strategic direction of all aspects of people management, including talent acquisition, training and development, performance management, organisational analytics and workforce planning.

Fernando brings more than 20 years of engineering management experience as a CTO and senior engineering executive to Ridecell. With a track record of implementing complex cloud computing and big data projects for enterprise companies such as Mode Media Corporation, Extended Systems, Inc., Oracle Corporation and the French government, Fernando has built, grown and managed development teams of several hundred engineers on three continents.

Fernando started his enterprise software career while studying at Instituto Tecnologico de Buenos Aires and is a joint inventor of multiple patents covering online processing and geo-database technologies.

Gelena has over 15 years of expansive Human Resources and organisational effectiveness experience, managing HR at both start-ups and large established enterprises, including Clorox, Riverbed Technology, Illumina, Stitch Fix, Udemy and Business Wire, a Berkshire Hathaway Company. She has a deep passion for fostering an exceptional culture and employee experience. Her leadership accomplishments include employing advanced people analytics to transform organisational structures and implement high-performing people-centric employee programs. Gelena holds a degree in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

“With our recently closed Series B round, Ridecell is accelerating the development of our mobility and operations platform to support use cases ranging from carsharing to autonomous ridehailing. Fernando and Gelena each bring years of industry experience and deep technical expertise, which make them invaluable additions to our management team,” said Aarjav Trivedi, CEO of Ridecell. “They are highly seasoned team leaders that will help us grow our global organisation, and help our people maintain focus on achieving results for Ridecell customers.”