Those in the know might have seen this coming, but I am gobsmacked.
Anat Ashkenazi has accepted the position of Chief Financial Officer for Alphabet Investor Relations, for whom Google is a subsidiary.
A piece of what I read at CNBC this morning:
Alphabet’s outgoing finance chief, Ruth Porat, spent the past year and a half trying to help her internet company navigate the generative artificial intelligence boom. The person who was just named her successor was knee-deep in a very different phenomenon: anti-obesity drugs.
Alphabet announced on Wednesday that Eli Lilly Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi will be its new CFO after an almost year-long search. During that time, Ashkenazi has managed the books at the world’s most valuable drugmaker, which has seen so much demand for weight loss treatments Mounjaro and Zepbound that it’s struggled to maintain supply.
Porat isn’t booted out, but is getting a job advancement to being Alphabet’s President and Chief Information Officer (CIO).
Ashkenazi’s change of jobs will include a change of home base as well, moving from Lilly’s home in Indiana to the heart of the world’s AI city, San Francisco, California.
Lilly does not have a replacement for Ashkenazi yet. It will be fascinating to see who takes that CFO job.
As I learn more, I will share more.