Veteran Amazon executive — and one-time president of Big Fish Games — Dave Stephenson is joining Airbnb as its chief financial officer.
In an announcement Monday morning, Airbnb said the 17-year Amazon exec would join the company in January. Stephenson most recently has been vice president and CFO of Amazon’s Worldwide Consumer Organization, responsible for all of Amazon’s global website sales including Amazon Prime and Amazon subsidiaries Whole Foods and Zappos.
Stephenson originally joined Amazon in 1999 as a finance manager, coming from consumer giant Proctor and Gamble. He worked his way up inside Amazon through various finance roles until 2011, when he left Amazon for Big Fish Games and became its president and CFO. He re-joined Amazon in 2013.
Airbnb has been widely considered to be positioning itself for an IPO in 2019. The CFO position at the company has been vacant for nearly a year after the previous CFO left the company reportedly after tensions with Brian Chesky, Airbnb’s CEO and co-founder.
Stephenson is the second high-profile Amazon exec to join Airbnb recently. Earlier this year, the company hired Greg Greeley to be Airbnb’s president of homes after Greeley had served as Amazon’s vice president of Amazon Prime and delivery experience.
“Dave is one of the best financial operators in the world and there’s no one better prepared to serve as our CFO,” said Chesky in a statement that cited Stephenson’s passion for travel. “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.”
“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 said.
