David A. Ebersman (born 1969) is an American businessman and the co-founder and

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

of Lyra Health. He previously served as chief financial officer of

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

and Genentech. At Facebook, Ebersman orchestrated the largest U.S. Internet IPO of all time and set a record for CFO stock sales.

Early life

David Ebersman was born in 1969. He attended the Trinity School in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, graduating in 1987. Ebersman attended Brown University and graduated in June 1991 with an AB in

international relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such a ...

and

Economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...

Career

Ebersman began his professional career at

Oppenheimer & Co Oppenheimer Holdings is an American multinational independent investment bank and financial services company offering investment banking, financial advisory services, capital markets services, asset management, wealth management, and related pro ...

, Inc. in September 1991 as a Research Analyst. Ebersman left Oppenheimer & Co in February 1994 and began working for Genentech. He served as executive vice president and CFO of the company between 2006 and 2009.

Facebook

In September 2009, Ebersman joined Facebook as the company's chief financial officer, hired in part because he had "public company experience". He oversaw the company's

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...

on May 18, 2012—then the largest U.S. Internet offering of all time. The IPO proved controversial after the company's market value dropped significantly over the following weeks. In a ''New York Times'' article,

Andrew Ross Sorkin Andrew Ross Sorkin (born February 19, 1977) is an American journalist and author. He is a financial columnist for ''The New York Times'' and a co-anchor of CNBC's ''Squawk Box.'' He is also the founder and editor of DealBook, a financial news s ...

pointed to Ebersman's culpability for the "catastrophe of an initial public offering," writing "if there is one single individual more responsible than any other for the staggering mispricing of Facebook's I.P.O., it is Mr. Ebersman." In November 2013, Ebersman set a record for CFO stock sales when he cashed in more than 900,000 shares of Facebook stock worth $42.6 million. He sold $26.2 million more worth of stock in December of that year. Ebersman stepped down from his role at Facebook in June 2014 and was succeeded by David Wehner.

Lyra Health

In May 2015, Ebersman announced the launch of Lyra Health, a

mental health care A mental health professional is a health care practitioner or social and human services provider who offers services for the purpose of improving an individual's mental health or to treat mental disorders. This broad category was developed as a ...

startup. In 2021, the company was valued at $4.6 billion. Ebersman serves on the boards of Castlight Health and

SurveyMonkey Momentive Inc. (formerly SurveyMonkey Inc.) is an experience management company that offers cloud-based software in brand insights, market insights, product experience, employee experience, customer experience, online survey development, and a s ...

, where he is chairman of the board.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ebersman, David American chief financial officers Facebook employees Living people American technology chief executives Brown University alumni Trinity School (New York City) alumni Genentech people 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople Businesspeople from New York City Henry Crown Fellows 1969 births