Good morning. Eli Lilly and Company's financial chief Anat Ashkenazi has been named the next CFO and SVP of Google and Alphabet. Wedbush Securities Managing Partner Dan Ives thinks the tech giant made a solid hire.
“She was a strong candidate to fill a void at Alphabet at a critical time of its growth and 'AI revolution,'” Ives told me. “She has a strong reputation and extensive experience as a CFO.”
Courtesy of Eli Lilly and Company
Alphabet Inc., ranked No. 8 on the 2024 Fortune 500 list and the parent company of Google, announced Wednesday that Ashkenazi will succeed Ruth Porat as CFO, effective July 31. Ashkenazi, who spent 23 years at Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical company Lilly, became CFO in 2021. During her tenure, she served as CFO of Lilly Research Laboratories, CFO of several of the company's global business lines and head of corporate strategy.
Porat, who has served as CFO since 2015 and is Alphabet's longest-serving financial officer, has been promoted to a new role as president and chief investment officer of Alphabet and Google, as previously announced in July 2023. Porat will continue in his role as CFO while the company and its board search for a replacement.
An 11-month search is “on the long side,” Scott W. Simmons, co-managing partner at executive search firm Christ Kolder Associates, told me, but added that the new CFO position is “a big role, so the field of candidates will narrow quickly.”
Ashkenazi leaves Lilly on a roll. The company is ranked 127th on the Fortune 500, up 15 spots from last year's ranking. Lilly projects revenue of $34 billion in 2023. She has steered the company's finances as sales and demand for weight-loss drugs soar. In the first quarter, Lilly's global revenue rose 26% year over year to $8.77 billion, driven by sales of Maunjaro and Zepbound.
“The CFO should lead the organization.”
Last winter, I spoke with Ashkenazi about Zepbound's competitive pricing, and we also talked about her career with the company.
“When I joined Lilly, I started out in venture business development, which is very financially-intensive,” Ashkenazi explains. “But then I moved into strategy, which opened my eyes to other areas, and I loved it. I loved the breadth of looking at the whole business, the whole value chain from start to finish. I enjoyed looking at really difficult, complex problems and being on the front lines of making really important decisions. So my career took a bit of a turn and I ended up on the CFO path.”
She adds that in times of success and growth, or even difficult times, “CFOs should lead their organizations back to their core mission and values and chart a path forward.”
Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in a statement Wednesday that Alphabet viewed Ashkenazi as a “talented CFO with a proven track record of strategic focus on long-term investments to drive innovation and growth.” Pichai also said he looked forward to working with Ashkenazi to responsibly invest in the company's next wave of growth in the AI era.
“Google's growth and evolution over the past 25 years has been incredible, helping billions of people and millions of businesses around the world,” Ashkenazi said in a statement. The opportunity to make an impact “has never been greater,” he said.
Cheryl Estrada
cheryl.estrada@fortune.com
Leader board
Jane Bailey According to the company, Bailey has been appointed CFO of JPMorgan Wealth Management. Bailey will report to Bori Cox, CFO of Consumer & Community Banking, and will share responsibility with Christine Lemkau, CEO of JPMorgan Wealth Management. Bailey previously served as CFO of UBS Americas and Wealth Management Americas, where he spent nearly 20 years. He has held numerous leadership positions across multiple business units. Bailey began his career as an analyst at Standard Chartered Bank and then Standard & Poor's.
Shane Hostetter has been named CFO of Chemours Company (NYSE: CC), a global chemical company, effective July 1. With Hostetter's appointment, Matt Abbott, who had served as interim CFO since February, will return to his previous role of SVP, chief corporate transformation officer. Chemours' previous CFO, Jonathan Locke, resigned on April 23 following an internal investigation. Hostetter joins Chemours after 13 years at Quaker Chemical Corporation, where he had served as CFO since April 2021. Prior to Quaker Houghton, he held several financial leadership roles at Pulse Electronics Corporation, a publicly traded global manufacturer of electronic components, and began his career as an auditor at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Big Deal
A new poll released by Deloitte assessed the role of finance in technology adoption. According to the report, about 73.6% of C-suite and other executives surveyed said their controller or finance department is involved in technology in some way. Of these leaders, 41.7% said automating tasks such as bookkeeping, payroll, and reporting is likely to be the top technology priority for controllers and finance departments, followed by 19% who said AI is a priority.
Going deeper
“Fortune 500 CEOs are optimistic about the economy and wish they had held Microsoft and Nvidia stock,” said the new luck The report is based on the annual CEO survey. Some of the findings include: 28% believe the U.S. economy will fall into a recession within the next 12 months. Meanwhile, nearly 70% believe the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by the end of 2024, indicating they believe policymakers are close to containing inflation. The survey also delves into views on AI and profiles the most respected CEOs.
Stories I've heard
“Amazon has allowed us to lower our prices four times. Now you hardly ever hear the 'full pay' story. And it's all thanks to Amazon.”
–John Mackey, founder of Whole Foods. luck In an interview, he said the company shed its image of being known for its “full-salary” prices after Amazon acquired it in 2017. He credited Jeff Bezos, Amazon's former CEO and current chairman, with having the foresight to seize an opportunity to lower prices that would yield long-term results.
