Lazada Indonesia Co-Founder Thomas Damek Resigns To Prepare For New Business

Lazada Indonesia co-founder and managing director Thomas Damek has left the company according to several sources, and this was confirmed by Lazada to DailySocial on Friday (4/4) morning. Prior to his departure, Damek was involved in the preparation, launch, and development of Lamido, Lazada's marketplace site, which was created for mid-sized stores looking to have an online presence.

Before celebrating its second birthday last month, Lazada announced three new executives to strengthen its management team. Andry Huzain was recruited from Plasa MSN to become VP of mobile commerce, Suharno Salim was recruited from Electronic Solutions as head of electronic products, and Haryo Suryo Putro, former COO of Groupon Indonesia to lead Lazada Marketplace.

Lazada Indonesia CEO Magnus Ekbom praised and thanked Thomas for his contribution so far. "Tom has been one of the main individuals and leaders at Lazada and Lamido and leaves this company with many thanks and appreciation for all his efforts in forming the leading e-commerce group in Indonesia with the entire team behind Lazada and Lamido."

Thomas himself told DailySocial that he is preparing something that will be announced at a later time. "Lazada and Lamido have been great so far. I've really enjoyed building it from nothing until now. Now that it's very stable and we've overcome all the initial problems, I feel like now is the perfect time to do something new." Whether it is, he is not ready to say, "but this will be something new for Indonesia."

Rocket Internet has been a kind of incubator for Internet-based industry players in Indonesia. In 2012, Bede Moore and Susie Sugden who are also co-founders and managing directors of Lazada Indonesia left the company to start Vela Asia, an e-commerce consulting and support company. There is also Hadi Wenas, co-founder and CEO of Zalora Indonesia late last year who started aCommerce, a logistics company and e-commerce supporter. Not again many other internet companies in Indonesia which was started by former employees of companies in the Rocket Internet group. Rama Mamuaya calls this phenomenon the "Rocket Mafia", comparing it to the "PayPal Mafia" in the United States which is considered to have driven the growth and development of the internet-based industry with the spread of its former employees and founders and their investment in many internet companies in the country.

We've also separately received word that Magnus Ekbom himself will be leaving Lazada, possibly docking on Taobao which is just announced his intention to attend in Indonesia. Magnus directly denied this to us and said, "I will remain the CEO of Lazada Indonesia as long as I have the trust of our management, investors and customers".

[header image courtesy of Lazada Indonesia]