Facebook hires former Genentech exec Ebersman as its new CFO
Facebook announced today it had hired former Genentech Inc. executive David Ebersman as its chief financial officer. Ebersman, who will formally start in September, was at Genetech for 15 years, including as its vice president and CFO between 2006 and 2009.
“We quickly recognized that David was the right person for Facebook," wrote Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg in a statement. "He was Genentech's CFO while revenue tripled, and his success in scaling the finance organization of a fast growing company will be important to Facebook.”
Ebersman left Genentech in April, just after the firm was acquired by Swiss pharmaceutical conglomerate Roche in a $47-billion takeover. At the time, Facebook said it was looking for a CFO with "public company experience," after the departure of former finance head Gideon Yu. Yu, who himself had experience at Google's YouTube and Yahoo, both public entities, held the job for less than two years.
Ebersman's hire suggests that Facebook may be ramping up its plans to go public, a milestone that Zuckerberg has often alluded to.
-- David Sarno
