John Shea

CCO, Aura

I am a senior operations and customer success executive who has led large global teams in high-growth organizations, from VC and PE-backed businesses to large public companies. As VP of Customer Care at Toast, I transformed a 1,700-person support operation to drive higher quality and consistency in execution, leading to improved customer satisfaction and increased efficiency. Prior to Toast, I led global services and support at Amazon Robotics, where I optimized system performance as the business deployed new solutions and doubled its footprint. At PillPack, I led both distribution and customer support during a period of rapid growth and implemented operational improvements that reduced cost to serve by 30+%, contributing to a successful exit (acquired by Amazon).

An experienced people and organizational leader, I started my journey in the US Army where I led teams in combat units, including during deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. In my business career, I’ve continued to hone my leadership skills, becoming a trusted mentor who builds high performing teams and leads them through big, and often difficult, changes. As the GM of a business unit at Endurance International Group, I guided my organization through a restructuring and a successful IPO. At Amazon Robotics, I rebuilt the analytics and configuration teams and led them to deliver impactful projects that improved product performance and reliability. At Toast, I reorganized teams to streamline processes, stood up a new team in India to optimize our global footprint, onboarded new outsourced support vendors, and overhauled the workforce management function to improve service levels.

As a Bain & Co alum, I am passionate about using data and analysis to inform decisions and priorities, drive operational excellence, and achieve business objectives. I also build strong partnerships with product and engineering teams, using data on customer issues to inform roadmaps and implement improvements. At Amazon, I conducted a key performance analysis that led to product fixes and $15-20mm in cost savings. At Toast and Pillpack, I implemented new workforce planning models, KPIs, and performance management programs that improved both operational efficiency and customer experience.

If you are interested in leadership, operations, customer success / experience, technology, or veterans in business, I’d love to connect!