Airbnb Hires Veteran Amazon Executive As CFO

Airbnb Hires Veteran Amazon Executive As CFO

Airbnb, preparing for an expected initial public offering next year, announced Monday (Nov. 26) that Amazon executive Dave Stephenson is coming onboard as chief financial officer.

In a press release, Airbnb said that when building its executive team, it was looking for a CFO who believes in its mission and has the skills to help it grow. Stephenson was most recently CFO of Amazon’s worldwide consumer organization.

“Dave is one of the best financial operators in the world, and there’s no one better prepared to serve as our CFO,” Brian Chesky, Airbnb CEO and head of community, said in the press release. “I’m proud of everything we’ve achieved, but Airbnb is just getting started. In the years ahead, Dave will be Airbnb’s quarterback for long-term growth, driving us to be even more efficient and leverage what makes Airbnb unique to create new businesses and continue to expand.”

Stephenson joins Airbnb after a 17-year career at Amazon. He was most recently responsible for all of Amazon’s global website sales, including Prime, Whole Foods and Zappos. Prior to that, he was vice president for Amazon’s international consumer unit and led finance across different areas of the company, including North America retail, merchant services and Amazon Web Services (AWS). In addition, Stephenson served as president and CFO of Big Fish Games and spent nearly a decade at Procter & Gamble in a variety of finance and engineering roles.

“I am thrilled to be joining and bringing my experience leading fast-growing businesses at scale to help Airbnb accelerate its already incredible growth. There are tremendous opportunities to grow Airbnb’s existing businesses and invest in new ones that will help Airbnb grow stronger in the decades to come,” Stephenson added in the press release. He will join the company in early January and will report to Chesky.

The announcement comes in the same month that Airbnb was able to make more than $1 billion in revenue in the third quarter. CNBC, citing a memo Airbnb is expected to release, reported earlier in November that the third quarter was the strongest three-month period in Airbnb’s history.