Lilly CFO Ashkenazi leaving to take job at Google parent Alphabet

Anat Ashkenazi, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Indianapolis-based drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co., is stepping down to take a position as chief financial officer of Google parent Alphabet Inc.

The two companies made separate announcements on Wednesday.

Ashkenazi, 51, who has worked at Lilly for 23 years, including as chief financial officer since 2021, will continue to work at the drugmaker through July “at full capacity in her role and as a member of Lilly’s Executive Committee,” Lilly said.

“On behalf of our board of directors, leadership team and employees, I would like to thank Anat for her 23 years of outstanding service to our company,” Lilly CEO David Ricks said in written remarks. “During her last three years as Lilly’s CFO, we have experienced tremendous growth and laid the groundwork to help us reach even more patients with our medicines. I want to personally thank Anat for her partnership, friendship, and leadership of our financial organization, and to wish her well in her new role.”

Lilly said it has begun an internal and external search for Ashkenazi’s successor.

Her departure comes as Lilly has reached new heights in revenue ($34.1 billion in 2023, up 20%) and has seen demand soar for new products, including diabetes drug Mounjaro and weight-loss drug Zepbound.

Lilly stock has set new records in recent months, and was trading Wednesday at $832 per share, near its all-time high of $838, set on Monday. The stock has climbed 86% in the past year.

Ashkenazi was Lilly’s third-highest paid executive last year, with a total compensation package of $7.6 million.

Lilly declined to make Ashkenazi available for an interview. In a brief email exchange with IBJ, Ashkenazi said she planned to stay in Indianapolis for a few more months.

Alphabet, based in Mountain View, California, said Ashkenazi will start her new job July 31, and will be based in the San Francisco Bay Area, reporting to Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai.

“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,” Pichai said in written remarks. “The AI era is giving us an incredible opportunity to innovate at scale across our core products, and to create entirely new products and experiences for our users and customers. I look forward to working with Anat as we invest responsibly to support our next wave of growth.”

Ashkenazi said she felt honored to be joining Alphabet as it invests “for the company’s future at such an exciting moment.”

“Google’s growth and evolution over the last 25 years has been an incredible story, helping billions of people and millions of businesses around the world,” Ashkenazi said in written remarks.

Alphabet is a collection of companies, the largest of which is Google. Larry Page and Sergey Brin launched Google in 1998 and built it into a colossus used by billions of people for its products and platforms.

Alphabet previously announced that CFO Ruth Porat was starting a new role as president and chief investment officer of Alphabet and Google.

Prior to serving as Lilly’s CFO, Ms. Ashkenazi was senior vice president, controller, and chief financial officer of Lilly Research Laboratories. In this role, she oversaw the CFOs of the company’s commercial businesses, as well as those for research and development, manufacturing and quality, and G&A functions. She also led the corporate strategy team and business transformation office. Previously, she served as CFO for several of the company’s global business areas.

Ashkenazi holds an MBA from Tel Aviv University and a bachelor’s degree in economics and business administration from the Hebrew University.