Online property rental company has hired Dave Stephenson as its chief financial officer. Stephenson spent more than seventeen years at Amazon and was most recently the vice president and chief financial officer of Amazon’s Worldwide Consumer Organization where he oversaw global website sales, according to CNBC. Stephenson will start working at Airbnb in January 2019 and is going to report to Chesky.
In this role, Stephenson oversaw gross merchandise sales in excess of $250 billion and helped the business hit double-digit revenue and operating profit growth in the past four years. Stephenson also played a role in Amazon’s integration of Whole Foods and Zappos. And Stephenson also served as President and CFO of Big Fish Games for a couple of years between 2011 to 2013.
“Dave is one of the best financial operators in the world and there’s no one better prepared to serve as our CFO. I’m proud of everything we’ve achieved, but Airbnb is just getting started,” said Airbnb CEO and Head of Community Brian Chesky in a statement. “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.”
Airbnb’s CFO position has been vacant for nearly ten months after Laurence Tosi left the company. And as the company is gunning for an initial public offering next year, filling the CFO position has been vital. Stephenson is the second executive that left Amazon to join Airbnb this past year following Greg Greeley ― who is president of the Homes division.
