Good morning. Eli Lilly and Company’s finance chief Anat Ashkenazi was tapped as the next CFO and SVP of Google and Alphabet, and Dan Ives, Wedbush Securities managing partner, believes the tech giant has made a solid hire.
“This was a strong candidate that fills a void for Alphabet at a key time in its growth transformation and ‘AI Revolution,’” Ives told me. “She has a strong reputation and great CFO experience.”
Alphabet Inc., no. 8 on the 2024 Fortune 500 list, and the parent company of Google, announced on Wednesday that Ashkenazi will succeed Ruth Porat, effective July 31. A 23-year veteran of the Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical company Lilly, Ashkenazi began her CFO role in 2021. During her tenure, other roles included CFO of Lilly Research Laboratories, CFO for several of the company’s global business areas, and leader of corporate strategy.
Porat, CFO since 2015, and Alphabet's longest-serving finance chief, was promoted to a new role as president and chief investment officer of Alphabet and Google, previously announced in July 2023. Porat continued to occupy the CFO role as the company and board searched for her successor.
An 11-month search is on the “longer side of the spectrum,” Scott W. Simmons, co-managing partner of executive search firm Crist Kolder Associates, told me. However, the new CFO has “big shoes to fill, which immediately narrows the pool of viable candidates,” he added.
Ashkenazi is leaving Lilly on a high note. The company ranks no. 127 on the Fortune 500, jumping up 15 spots from last year’s ranking. Lilly earned $34 billion in revenue in 2023. She has been at the helm of finance as sales and demand for weight-loss drugs has skyrocketed. In Q1, worldwide revenue for Lilly rose 26% to $8.77 billion year over year, driven by the sales of Mounjaro and Zepbound.
'The CFO should anchor the organization'
In my conversation with Ashkenazi last winter about the competitive pricing of Zepbound, we also talked about her career journey at the company.
“When I joined Lilly, I started on the business development side in venture investing, which is very kind of financially driven,” Ashkenazi explained. “But then I moved into strategy, and it opened my eyes to other areas, and I absolutely loved it. I love the breadth of looking at the entire business, the entire value chain from start to finish. I enjoyed being at the forefront of making really important decisions looking at very challenging and complex problems. And that’s where my career shifted a little bit and got on the CFO track.”
She added that during times of success and growth, or in challenging times, “the CFO should anchor the organization back to its core mission and values and chart the course forward.”
In Ashkenazi, Alphabet has found “a strong CFO, with a track record of strategic focus on long-term investment to fuel innovation and growth,” Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in a statement on Wednesday. Pichai also mentioned that he looks forward to working with Ashkenazi to invest responsibly in the company’s next wave of growth in the AI era.
“Google’s growth and evolution over the last 25 years has been an incredible story, helping billions of people and millions of businesses around the world,” Ashkenazi said in a statement. The opportunity to have an impact is "greater than ever," she said.
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
