Facebook Names Ex-Genentech Exec New CFO

David EbersmanFacebook Monday announced that David Ebersman, the former executive vice president and chief financial officer of Genentech, has been named the company's new CFO. The appointment comes three months after the departure of former Facebook CFO Gideon Yu.

Ebersman will start in September and oversee Facebook's finance, accounting, investor relations, and real estate operations. He will also become part of the company's executive management team and report to CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

"We received a lot of interest in the CFO position and had the opportunity to meet with many impressive candidates," said Zuckerberg, in a statement. "We quickly recognized that David was the right person for Facebook. He was Genentech's CFO while revenue tripled, and his success in scaling the finance organization of a fast growing company will be important to Facebook."

Ebersman worked at San Francisco-based biotech firm Genentech for 15 years and served as CFO from 2006 through April 2009, when Roche Group acquired the company. With that background he brings public company experience, one of the chief requirements Facebook set out for the position following Yu's exit at the end of March. The company emphasized at the time that it was pleased with its financial performance despite the economic downturn.

Facebook said it had five straight quarters of profitability (after excluding certain items), 70% year-over-year revenue growth, and was expecting to be cash flow-positive in 2010. Estimates have put Facebook's revenue this year at about $500 million. Zuckerberg hopes to take the company public -- but not for a few years, according to a Reuters report last month.

In the meantime, Facebook in May raised an additional $200 million in venture capital from Russian investor Digital Sky Technologies at a $10 billion valuation. That gives the company a sizeable financial cushion as it seeks the best business model for monetizing its 200 million and growing active user base. Part of that responsibility will now also rest with Ebersman.

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