Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky has said he plans to take the short-term rental company public before 2020, and now, the company has a new chief financial officer to help guide it through its initial public offering.
Airbnb announced Monday that it is hiring Dave Stephenson away from Amazon to be its new CFO.
Stephenson spent 17 years with Amazon, most recently serving as vice president and CFO of Amazon’s Worldwide Consumer Organization, which is responsible for Amazon’s global website sales, including Amazon Prime, and prominent subsidiaries like Whole Foods and Zappos.
Prior to that, Stephenson was vice president of Amazon’s International Consumer business. Stephenson also previously led finance in several different parts of Amazon’s empire, including North America Retail, Merchant Services and Amazon Web Services.
Earlier in his career, Stephenson served as president and CFO of Big Fish Games, and spent almost a decade at Procter & Gamble in various roles.
And now, Stephenson is coming to Airbnb.
“Dave is one of the best financial operators in the world and there’s no one better prepared to serve as our CFO,” Chesky said in a statement. “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.”
According to Airbnb, Stephenson will officially join the company in January.
“I am thrilled to be joining and bringing my experience leading fast-growing businesses at scale to help Airbnb accelerate its already incredible growth,” Stephenson said. “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.”
