Dive Brief:

• Zoom Video Communications CFO Kelly Steckelberg will step back from her position as finance chief after a seven-year tenure in the role, the company announced Wednesday as part of its earnings report for the second quarter of its fiscal 2025.
• Steckelberg will stay on as finance chief through the release of the video conferencing provider’s earnings for its fiscal quarter ended Oct. 31, according to a securities filing. Zoom has engaged an executive search firm to identify Steckelberg’s successor.   
• Steckelberg has played an “integral” role at Zoom, “steering our IPO in 2019 and continuing the momentum as our customer base rapidly expanded during the pandemic,” Zoom Founder and CEO Eric Yuan said Wednesday during the company’s Q2 earnings call. “Under her strong financial leadership, Zoom has maintained a consistent track record of profitability and cash flow growth.”

Dive Insight:

The San Jose, Calif.-based company tapped the CFO’s financial chops during its 2019 IPO, where Steckelberg organized its operations to better support sales and focused on cash flow and profitability, Steckelberg told CFO Dive in a 2019 interview.

Zoom’s stock price swiftly rose in the days following its IPO, with the company reaching a market cap of nearly $17.7 billion in three days — making it the most valuable tech company which had gone public that quarter, CFO Dive previously reported. Her careful approach to growth also saw her named as CFO Dive’s CFO of the year in 2020.

Steckelberg, who joined Zoom in 2017 after serving as CEO for online dating platform Zoosk, has also made her way onto the list of top-paid finance chiefs in recent years. Her compensation jumped significantly in 2023 to make her the second highest-paid CFO of that year, coming in just under former Walmart CFO John Rainey, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Much of her $36.7 million pay package for 2023 came from a stock award with a value of $36.3 million, according to Zoom’s fiscal 2023 proxy statement.

For the company’s fiscal 2024, Steckelberg received total compensation of approximately $13.3 million, comprised of a $361,385 base salary, a stock award valued at $12.9 million, non-equity incentive compensation of $25,949 and other compensation of $5,858, according to its 2024 proxy.  

With Steckelberg departing Zoom, the CFO will be entitled to receive her accrued salary through her October separation date with the company, according to a transition agreement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Steckelberg’s equity awards will also continue to vest throughout the transition period until her departure, according to the agreement.

Despite news of the long-time CFO’s departure, shares of Zoom spiked by as much as 11% following better-than-expected earnings results, with the company raising its full year revenue outlook to a range between $4.630 billion and $4.640 billion. The stock is currently up by about 12%, according to the Nasdaq.

The video conferencing platform reported total revenues of $1.1 billion for its most recent quarter ended July 31, a 2.1% jump year-over-year, according to its earnings results.

The company also boosted its operating cash flow for the quarter by 33.7% year-over-year to reach $449.3 million, while net income rose to approximately $216 million for the quarter compared to $181 million in the prior year period.

Zoom declined to comment beyond its remarks during Wednesday’s earnings call.