Rebekah E. Dopp Steps In as New CEO of the International Association of Better Business Bureaus
The International Association of Better Business Bureaus (IABBB) has appointed Rebekah E. Dopp as its next Chief Executive Officer. This marks a pivotal moment for the Better Business Bureau (BBB) as it steps into its second century of service with a renewed focus on trust, technology, and global reach. The choice of Dopp underscores an agenda centered on both continuity and reinvention.
With over 90 local BBBs across the U.S. and Canada unified under the IABBB, this leadership appointment carries significance not just for accredited businesses but for millions of consumers who rely on the BBB for credible information every year. The move signals that the BBB network is ready to build on its historic foundation and prepare for the challenges of the AI-driven economy.
A Career Built at the Crossroads of Media and Technology
Dopp’s background reads like a blueprint for transformation. Her career has stretched across iconic companies such as HBO, CBS, Google, YouTube, and The CW. She also founded Exponent EBI, a consultancy focused on institutional reinvention. Her experience combines leadership in traditional media with hands-on roles in Silicon Valley’s technology sector. Few executives have operated at that intersection with the same level of influence.
Each stop in her career provided lessons in balancing legacy institutions with digital disruption. At HBO and CBS, she worked during a period when streaming was beginning to challenge traditional broadcasting. At Google and YouTube, she saw firsthand how platforms built on user-generated content could reset consumer expectations. These experiences are directly relevant to her new task: leading a legacy institution like the BBB through another wave of change brought by artificial intelligence and data-driven trust models.
Carrying Trust into the AI Era
Dopp’s opening remarks set the tone for her leadership. She noted that as AI reshapes commerce, BBB’s role as a trusted guide becomes even more critical. Her focus will be on strengthening the organization’s digital backbone, responsibly applying artificial intelligence, and unlocking the value hidden in decades of consumer and business data.
That message reflects a recognition that consumer trust is not static. What once relied on paper records and in-person complaints now flows through digital platforms where expectations shift almost overnight. The challenge for Dopp is to ensure that trust remains portable—that consumers see BBB as a source of clarity whether they’re reading a local review, filing a complaint, or trying to separate real businesses from scams in an AI-driven marketplace.
There’s also a strong business-facing component to her agenda. For many small and mid-sized businesses, credibility is the difference between earning a customer and losing one. BBB accreditation has long been a visible marker of reliability. In the years ahead, Dopp intends to make that marker even more relevant by pairing it with technology-driven tools and insights that help businesses maintain their reputations in a digital-first economy.
Support from the Board
Rod Davis, Chair of the IABBB Board, emphasized Dopp’s dual strengths of innovation and community focus. His endorsement reflects a consensus that leading BBB forward requires more than technical fluency—it requires respect for the organization’s century-long legacy of local presence. The appointment signals that the board expects Dopp to bridge the old with the new, ensuring that digital advances never disconnect the BBB from its community-driven roots.
Board support is more than symbolic. With thousands of employees embedded in local communities across the U.S. and Canada, any change at the top of the IABBB affects how those offices operate day to day. Dopp’s challenge will be maintaining the sense of local accountability that defines BBB while simultaneously modernizing its systems at a global scale. That balancing act is no small task, but it is exactly where her career experience seems to align with the role.
A Century of Building Trust
The BBB’s track record stretches back more than 100 years. From its earliest days, the organization positioned itself as a referee in disputes between businesses and consumers. Over time, that role expanded into accreditation programs, fraud tracking, and business reviews. What has remained constant is its commitment to protecting consumers and giving businesses a structured way to demonstrate credibility.
One of the biggest tests of BBB’s adaptability came with the rise of online reviews in the early 2000s. Sites like Yelp, Google Reviews, and later Facebook began shaping consumer opinion in real time. Many wondered whether BBB could stay relevant in a marketplace where reviews could go viral overnight. Instead of resisting, BBB leaned on its strength—verified information. While online platforms often struggled with fake reviews and manipulated ratings, BBB maintained its value by curating data, resolving disputes, and ensuring that reviews were tied to real accountability. That historical pivot provides a useful lens for Dopp’s upcoming challenge: making BBB just as relevant in an age when AI reshapes commerce at an even faster pace.
Today, BBB.org attracts more than 200 million annual visits and provides data on 5.8 million businesses, including over 360,000 accredited companies. Beyond the numbers, the organization continues to field complaints, track scams, and provide the public with insights that carry weight. These efforts remind us that technology may change, but the need for trusted intermediaries does not.
Expanding the Model Globally
The BBB’s focus has historically been North America, but that scope is widening. With international commerce increasingly digital, IABBB is preparing to extend the BBB model abroad. The goal is to position BBB as a global benchmark for credibility and accountability at a time when businesses operate across borders more than ever before.
Global expansion raises fresh questions. How does an institution built on local trust scale its practices in countries with different regulatory standards, consumer behaviors, and cultural norms? While the answers are still taking shape, the intent is clear: the BBB believes its core principles—honesty, accountability, and dispute resolution—are universal. Extending those principles globally is both a challenge and an opportunity. With Dopp at the helm, the timing suggests an ambition to make BBB as recognizable abroad as it is in the U.S. and Canada.
Rebekah E. Dopp’s appointment represents more than a leadership change. It signals an organization that understands the necessity of staying relevant across different technological eras. Just as previous leadership adapted to the rise of online reviews by leaning on verified data and dispute resolution, today’s BBB is preparing for an AI-driven economy where credibility must be earned in new ways. The combination of historical perspective and technological ambition sets the stage for the next century of the BBB network.
For businesses and consumers alike, the takeaway is straightforward: trust doesn’t go out of style. It changes form, it adapts to new technologies, but its core value remains. Under Dopp’s leadership, the BBB appears determined to keep that value intact—whether through AI-driven tools, global expansion, or simply staying true to its mission of protecting the public and empowering businesses to earn credibility.