Dive Brief:
- The CFO of San Francisco-based Lyft, Elaine Paul, will depart from the rideshare giant Friday after just over a year at her post, the company announced Tuesday. Erin Brewer, 52, will take over the financial helm on a permanent basis on July 10, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
- Paul is set to stay with the company as an advisor until Nov. 30 and current chief accounting officer Lisa Blackwood-Kapral will take the top finance seat until Brewer’s start date in a few months, the company said.
- The announcement comes less than two months after the company named ex-Amazon exec David Risher as its new CEO. A week into his tenure, Risher announced significant workforce slashes in a memo. “I’m confirming that we will significantly reduce the size of the team as part of a restructuring to focus on better meeting the needs of riders and drivers,” he wrote to employees at the time.
Dive Insight:
Brewer is set to receive an annual base salary of $650,000, the SEC filing said. Previously, she held the role of managing director of enterprise finance at Charles Schwab & Co where she led her team through historic client and asset growth from May 2020 until October 2022, according to the company statement.
Prior to Charles Schwab, Brewer was head of finance and strategy at Atlassian from September 2018 until April 2020, according to her LinkedIn profile.
On the heels of a C-suite shakeup with Risher’s appointment in late March, Lyft has faced several financial woes recently, between layoffs of about 1,200 jobs and disappointing earnings, while also competing with San Francisco-based rideshare giant Uber.
Since its IPO in 2019 which debuted at $72 a share — shares opened at just above $8 as of Wednesday morning — Lyft has fallen short compared to its biggest rival. Uber remains ahead in market share and capitalization, according to CNBC.
“I don’t need to dethrone a king,” Risher told CNBC last week, insisting that the market still warrants two players as both customers and drivers like to have options.
Lyft reported disappointing guidance for the second quarter in its earnings release for the first quarter ending March 31, with an anticipated revenue of about $1 million — equivalent to its reported revenue for the first quarter, the release said.
Although results for its first quarter topped estimates, Lyft’s stock has plunged in value this past year.
“In Q2 we will continue focusing on delivering service levels that riders and drivers expect. We’ve moved decisively to cut our operating costs and will use the savings to pay for continued service level improvements near-term,” Risher said in the earnings release.
