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After almost a year of searching, Google parent Alphabet has finally found a replacement for its chief financial officer position.
The tech giant has tapped Anat Ashkenazi — executive vice president and chief financial officer at pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly — as its new CFO and executive vice president, Alphabet said Wednesday. She will join Google and Alphabet starting July 31.
The company announced that CFO Ruth Porat would be stepping into a new role as the company’s president and chief investment officer last July, and has remained as CFO throughout the succession search.
“We’re very pleased to have found such a strong CFO, with a track record of strategic focus on long-term investment to fuel innovation and growth,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in a statement.
Pichai and Ashkenazi both noted plans for investment into Alphabet’s next stage of growth, with the CEO emphasizing the innovation potential of AI.
Ashkenazi has been at Eli Lilly since 2001, and served as CFO during the last three years, where she helped drive “tremendous growth and laid the groundwork to help us reach even more patients with our medicines,” Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks said in a statement announcing her departure.
Eli Lilly, the company behind weight-loss drug Zepbound and diabetes drug Mounjaro, has seen massive growth in recent years thanks to the boom in demand for the drugs. Ashkenazi was an instrumental part in developing investment strategies and allocating the windfall. Over the past two years, Eli Lilly has invested at least $3 billion in new manufacturing facilities to try to keep up with demand.
Eli Lilly’s net income rose 67% in the three months ending March 31, to $2.2 billion from $1.3 billion in the same period last year. The company is now embarking on an internal and external search for Ashkenazi’s successor, it said.
Read more: A pill could solve the Zepbound and Wegovy shortage, Eli Lilly executive says