Ebersman, 39, will oversee Facebooks finance, accounting, investor relations and real estate functions. He will formally start in September, Palo Alto, California-based Facebook said in a statement today.
Closely held Facebook, with more than 200 million users worldwide, said in March it was looking for a finance chief with experience running a public company. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard University dropout, has hired other managers from public companies, including former Google Inc. executive Sheryl Sandberg.
“We received a lot of interest in the CFO position,” Zuckerberg said in the statement. Ebersman “was Genentechs CFO while revenue tripled, and his success in scaling the finance organization of a fast growing company will be important to Facebook.”
After working as a research analyst for Oppenheimer & Co., Ebersman spent almost 15 years at Genentech, working his way up from business development to the chief financial officer position. He left in April, after Genentech was acquired by Roche Holding AG.
Zuckerberg said last month he expects a Facebook IPO, though it isnt an immediate focus for the company. Facebook has sold shares in several private transactions since its start in 2004. Last month, Russias Digital Sky Technologies paid $200 million for less than 2 percent of Facebook, valuing the company at $10 billion.
Other investors are Microsoft Corp., Peter Thiels Founders Fund, and venture-capital firms Accel Partners and Greylock Partners.