Shopify makes leadership team changes to EMEA division

Shopify has announced changes to its EMEA leadership team, with new roles for Emilie Benoit-Vernay, Benjamin Lang and Lara Rosquët, as it seeks to drive growth across the region and better support its merchants, partners, and innovative product development. 

With EMEA revenue over $1.2bn (£951.4bn) and 27% of Shopify’s merchant base in 2023, this continued investment in high-performing leadership will benefit the company’s future growth plans and expansion into enterprise retail locally.   

Benoit-Vernay is now director of partnerships for EMEA, transitioning from head of partnerships, Southern Europe. She will be responsible for leading and growing the partner ecosystem within Shopify’s EMEA markets, overseeing Shopify teams working with our solutions and technology partners. 

Prior to Shopify, she held numerous business development leadership roles supporting international expansion of companies in the USA, APAC and Europe.

On her appointment, Benoit-Vernay said: “EMEA is vital to Shopify’s ambitions to make commerce better for everyone, and I’m excited for the challenge of taking on a role that will empower our merchants and partners in the region to continue to grow. The partnerships channel is a key component of Shopify ‘s expansion.”

Joining Shopify in 2022, Lang has been head of Northern Europe partnerships, and now takes an expanded role to oversee Northern Europe and DACH. He will be responsible for building the ecosystem across these markets, helping partners to accelerate opportunities for more brands to navigate the next era of commerce. 

He joined Shopify from payment service provider Mollie, where he was country manager for France, and spent 13 years as an elite rower, representing France at the Rio Olympic Games in 2016.

Lang said: “We want to help our partners to build their business, and support their clients at every stage of the journey, regardless of scale or complexity. I’m confident that this leadership team is positioned well not just for Shopify’s success, but more importantly for our merchants and partners alike.”

Rosquët is now Shopify’s new country lead for France, responsible for expanding market growth, growing the partner ecosystem and leading the team culture. She joined Shopify back in 2016, and has held numerous roles across the company since, serving most recently as head of EMEA new channel partnerships and DACH partnerships. 

Based in Paris, she has previously held various positions for ecommerce and consultancy companies including Rocket Internet, Amazon and Kurt Salmon (part of Accenture Strategy). 

Rosquët said: “France is a hugely entrepreneurial market, and we are focused on how we can enable entrepreneurs to innovate and focus on their customers. The work of our merchants – businesses of all sizes up and down the country – is genuinely inspiring, and I believe that Shopify can help elevate their success like no other organisation can.”