Facebook hires new CFO

Popular social-networking site Facebook has hired David Ebersman, former executive vice president and chief financial officer of biotechnology firm Genentech, as its new CFO.

Ebersman, who starts at Facebook in September, will report to CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg. Ebersman will oversee Facebook’s finance, accounting, investor relations, and real estate functions. He also becomes part of the company’s executive management team, Facebook said on Monday.

Ebersman replaces Gideon Yu, who left Facebook in April after working there since August 2007. Yu had previously worked at YouTube and Yahoo. At the time, Facebook did not give a reason for Yu's decision to leave, but praised his work with the company.

Ebersman worked at Genentech for nearly 15 years. He served as the firm’s executive vice president and CFO from 2006 through April 2009, when Roche Group acquired the company.

"We received a lot of interest in the CFO position and had the opportunity to meet with many impressive candidates," Zuckerberg said in a statement on Monday. "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."

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.