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Instacart is preparing for public company life by naming its CEO, Fidji Simo, as the next board chair. Simo will officially replace founder and current Executive Chairman Apoorva Mehta as the top board member upon the grocery delivery company's upcoming public market debut.

Instacart hasn't announced a date for its IPO, but the long-awaited event seems to be drawing closer. The company submitted a confidential filing with the SEC in May 2022 — the typical first step in the IPO process.

In a company , Mehta explained his decision to step back from the company he founded in 2012: "Since I transitioned from CEO to Executive Chairman a year ago, I realized that I want to pursue a new mission and I want to do it with the same singular focus that I had while building Instacart. Stepping off the board will allow me to do just that."

This marks Simo's second time taking over Mehta's responsibilities, as she succeeded him as Instacart CEO in August 2021. Before that, she spent more than a decade at Meta, where she oversaw Facebook’s mobile application.

Though Simo will soon assume leadership of Instacart's Board of Directors, she has held a board seat since January 2021. In her new role, Simo will oversee other board members including The New York Times Company CEO Meredith Kopit Levien, TheKey co-founder Lily Sarafan, Peloton CEO Barry McCarthy, D1 Capital Partners Chief Investment Officer Daniel Sundheim, Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman, Sequoia Capital Managing Member Michael Moritz and Andreessen Horowitz General Partner Jeff Jordan.

News of Simo's board promotion comes as Instacart tightens its leadership structure to better operate in the public eye. The digital grocer hired a head of investor relations in April, and just last week, it revealed a wave of C-suite promotions across its product, technology, business and marketing organizations.

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