Airbnb poaches Amazon exec Dave Stephenson as its new CFO

Dave Stephenson is the new CFO of
Airbnb.
Airbnb

• Airbnb,
  which is poised to go public in the second half of 2019, has a
  new chief financial officer.
• Dave Stephenson joined Airbnb after 17 years at Amazon.
• He replaces Laurence Tosi, who left the CFO role in February
  after reportedly disagreeing with
  CEO Brian Chesky over the future of the company.

Airbnb has a new chief financial officer, the company
announced Monday.

Dave Stephenson, whose spent the last 17 years at Amazon, joins
the startup more than nine months after Laurence Tosi left the
position vacant. Stephenson was poached from his role as vice
president and CFO of Amazon’s worldwide consumer organization,
where he managed all of Amazon’s global online sales, from Amazon
Prime to Whole Foods.

Airbnb, which was last valued at $31 billion in a funding
round led by Alphabet’s CapitalG in September 2017, is preparing
for an initial public offering. CEO Brian Chesky previously said
that the company will be ready to go public by June 30,
2019. 

Stephenson’s “extensive experience building and scaling
rapidly growing businesses” will be especially valuable to
Airbnb, said Ann Mather, the newly-appointed audit chair on
Airbnb’s Board of Directors, in a statement.

The last CFO, Tosi, was an early investor in Airbnb. He
joined the company in 2015 and left in early 2018.

The Information
reported at the time that Tosi left over disagreements over
” “how to balance the financial stability needed to go
public with Mr. Chesky’s desire to transform Airbnb into a more
diversified travel firm, investing in areas that might not yield
profits for awhile.”