Jamie Siminoff, who founded Ring and created the video doorbell that started it all, is stepping down as the company’s CEO. In a blog post, Siminoff explained that invention is his true passion and that he’s focusing on creating new products for the company as its Chief Inventor instead.
Apparently, the rest of the Ring team has known about his transition plans and his search for a new chief since June last year. From March 22nd, the company will be led by former Discord COO Elizabeth Hamren. The new CEO will also head up the Blink, Amazon Key and Amazon Sidewalk divisions.
Siminoff shared how Ring’s first video doorbell was created in his garage and how it grew into a company that offers products across several categories, like cameras, alarms and even security drones. In 2018, Amazon acquired the company in a bid to take Nest head on, allowing Ring to scale up its production and reach customers it wasn’t able to before.
Over the past few years, though, Siminoff also had to deal with the fallout over Ring’s close relationship with law enforcement. The company came under fire from lawmakers and privacy advocates after it was revealed that it had formed partnerships with over 600 police forces across the US. To be specific, it allowed authorities to keep homeowners’ videos indefinitely and to share them with anyone they want. Ring ultimately changed the way it handled video requests from law enforcement agencies in 2021, when it required them to make public requests within 12 hours of an incident if they want a copy of users’ surveillance videos.
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Mariella Moon