Meal delivery service DoorDash hires Uber finance head as CFO

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Meal delivery service DoorDash Inc has hired Uber Technologies Inc’s head of finance to be its chief financial officer, which could put the startup closer to an initial public offering and deals another executive loss to Uber.

Tony Xu, CEO and Co-founder of DoorDash, speaks at the TechCrunch Disrupt event in Brooklyn borough of New York, U.S., May 11, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid -

Tony Xu, co-founder and chief executive officer of DoorDash, said on Thursday that he selected Adarkar for his “sharp mind” and leadership skills.

Adarkar had been head of finance for Uber since 2015, leading a team of more than 500 employees. His departure leaves yet another vacancy for the ride-services company, which has been without a chief financial officer for three years.

In a statement, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi praised Adarkar for “improving financial controls to putting the company on a path to profitability.”

At a technology conference in Aspen, Colorado, this week, Khosrowshahi also lamented that his company’s CFO search “is taking longer than I’d like.”

“We have terrific candidates,” Khosrowshahi said at the conference, adding that he’s looking for a CFO who will stay beyond Uber’s initial public offering, planned for next year.

Before Uber, Prabir Adarkar, the new Doordash CFO, worked on deals at Goldman Sachs (GS.N), a bank that frequently leads IPOs for Silicon Valley technology companies.

Reporting by Heather Somerville; Editing by Leslie Adler and Jeffrey Benkoe

(Original source)