Dive Brief:

• Scribd Inc. CFO Tony Grimminck will now serve as the company’s CEO permanently after serving as interim top executive for six months, according to a Thursday announcement. The company offers access via a $11.99 monthly subscription to a digital library of over 200 million ebooks, research documents and audio content, according to the release.
• Grimminck stepped into the interim CEO role for the San Francisco, California-based company following the departure of co-founder Trip Adler from the role in October, according to a company blog post. In taking the CEO chair, Grimminck’s main focus will be to help usher in a new era of growth, a company spokesperson told CFO Dive in an email.
• “Looking ahead, Scribd will be launching some exciting advances in technology as well as customer-driven updates in the year to come,” the spokesperson said. “As CEO, Mr. Grimminck will oversee all products in the Scribd, Inc. portfolio — Everand, Scribd and Slideshare.” 

Dive Insight:

The company’s CFO seat will remain vacant for the time being. Tod Harmon, vice president of finance and operations for the company, will lead the finance team, the spokesperson said. He will continue in his role as VP of finance but is the senior most finance person at the company.

“Tod has been with Scribd for many years and has seen the company through various stages of growth,” the spokesperson said in an email. “He is well-prepared to take on this role under Tony's leadership and continued guidance.”

Grimminck joined the company in 2019 as its CFO, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to Scribd, he was the co-founder of consultant agency International Connector. His past experiences also include roles at online hotel booking site HotelTonight, where he served as CFO for a three-year period beginning April 2015, and various positions at digital ticketing platform StubHub.

“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to bring the same level of passion and optimism that I’ve had in my near half decade at Scribd into our company’s next phase of growth,” Grimminck said in a statement included in the release. “This is an incredibly exciting time for us as we continue to build upon our recent expansion, and embark on our newly invigorated mission to spark human curiosity with a focus on the written and spoken word.”

The number of CFOs transitioning into CEO positions is steadily ticking upwards; in 2023, 8.4% of sitting CEOs were promoted from the top financial seat compared to 8.1% in the prior year, according to Crist|Kolder Associates’ latest Volatility Report.

However, while companies may be turning to their finance chiefs to fill the top executive chair with greater frequency, CFOs still face barriers when it comes to proving they are the right person for the job. CFOs that are aiming for a CEO role need to show that they “see a picture bigger than just the numbers” and that they are willing to take risks, according to a recent McKinsey report cited by CFO Dive.

Scribd is turning to its former CFO after taking several months to expand and “streamline how users discover and consume content,” it said in its Thursday release. That includes the decision to break its online document and book content into two separate platforms.

The company introduced its Everand app one month after Grimminick took the interim CEO seat, which hosts its e-books, audiobooks, podcasts, magazines, newspapers and sheet music content, according to a blog post. Meanwhile, document content — such as research materials and legal documents — are hosted on the Scribd app and platform, the company said.

Scribd subscribers gain access to both the Everand and Scribd app as well as its Slideshare offering, a presentation-sharing service it acquired from LinkedIn in 2020 for an undisclosed price, TechCrunch reported at the time.