Alphabet reached far outside its industry boundaries to recruit its new CFO; Anat Ashkenazi, an Eli Lilly veteran, takes charge of the Google parent’s finances this summer, replacing Ruth Porat, who was promoted to president and CIO. Unusual, yes; the drugmaker and the tech giant have very different lines of business, their cultures are different, and so are their strategic priorities.
Nevertheless, Alphabet didn’t have many close competitors from which to poach good candidates, so CEO Sundar Pichai had to expand his search beyond the well-known frontiers of the tech mecca.
Ashkenazi served Lilly in a variety of finance and operations roles, including as CFO for the past three years, making a name for her role in the success of popular new drugs including the diabetes treatment Mounjaro and the weight-loss drug Zepbound.
Her challenge was not to market the drugs but to manufacture enough of them to meet an exploding demand. Wall Street approved; during her stint as CFO, Lilly shares jumped 300% and the company reached a market cap of more than $800 billion.
That’s what made Ashkenazi attractive to Pichai.
“She has a track record of strategic focus on long-term investment to fuel innovation and growth,” he said in a statement.
She arrives at a critical time for Alphabet. In an internal memo, management recently informed employees that there would be restructuring, with possible layoffs, as Google positions itself for the next wave of innovation in artificial intelligence. The new CFO will by investing billions in AI to compete with Microsoft and Amazon, but must do so selectively, allocating capital across competing projects. That’s where Ashkenazi’s experience in weight-loss drug navigation comes in handy. To snatch her from Lilly, Pichai offered three big incentives: a close to $10 million signing bonus, an equity grant of $13 million, and future annual bonuses that could skyrocket to 200% of her base salary.
