Joby Aviation hired Matthew Field as finance chief of the electric air taxi company. Field is currently CFO of North America at Ford Motor Company. Field has spent more than two decades working at Ford, in roles including general auditor, where he led the modernization of internal audit, and CFO at Lincoln, where he launched the brand in China and reinvigorated commercial performance in the U.S. Before Ford, he worked at Goldman Sachs and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. He has worked in international operations for much of his career, including 9 years in Asia Pacific and on selected projects in South Africa, Brazil, Europe, and Egypt.
Virgin Galactic Holdings appointed Doug Ahrens as its new CFO. Ahrens most recently served as CFO at Mellanox, a public company in the semiconductor industry, where he was responsible for all finance functions until the acquisition by NVIDIA in 2020. Before that, he was CFO for software engineering company GlobalLogic. Earlier in his career, he spent over a decade at Maxim Integrated Products, leading financial planning and coordinating M&A activities. Before that, he served in several financial roles at Intel for six years and as an environmental engineer at Chevron. He replaces Jon Campagna, who is stepping down as CFO.
Autodesk named Debbie Clifford as chief financial officer, effective March 8. Clifford, who currently serves as finance chief at SurveyMonkey, returns to Autodesk, where she spent 13 years in various financial leadership roles, including as vice president for financial planning and analysis. Clifford succeeds R. Scott Herren, who left the design and engineering software company to become CFO at Cisco.
Maxeon Solar Technologies hired Kai Strohbecke as chief financial officer, effective March 15. Most recently, Strohbecke has been the vice president of finance and global operations controller for Micron Technology. Before that, he spent 10 years as CFO at Inotera Memories, a memory semiconductor manufacturing company located in Taiwan that he helped list on the Taiwan Stock Exchange in 2006. Before 2003, Strohbecke worked in various management roles at Infineon and Siemens Semiconductor Group. Strohbecke succeeds Joanne Solomon, who is retiring.
Healthcare company B. Braun Medical named James Allen as chief financial officer. For the last six years, Allen served as an operating company CFO with Steel Partners. His previous experience includes 15 years at Johnson & Johnson in a variety of business development and financial leadership roles. He began his career at Amoco Corporation. Allen replaces Bruce Heugel, who is retiring after 20 years working at the company.
Novolex appointed Dennis Norman as finance chief. Norman joins the food packaging manufacturer from healthcare IT and services company nThrive, where he was CFO. Before that, he spent 16 years as an executive leader in charge of strategic planning, finance, and corporate development at Polymer Group/Avintiv, the last six years as CFO. He succeeds Paul Palmisano, who is retiring after more than eight years at the company.
Biofacturing company Zymergen promoted Enakshi (Ena) Singh to finance chief. Singh has helped Zymergen close more than $1 billion in equity financing and $100M in debt since joining the company as vice president of finance in 2014. Singh previously served as senior vice president of asset management at Mubadala, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund. Previously, she was the vice president of technology investment banking at Merrill Lynch and an analyst for Latin American investment banking at Salomon Smith Barney.
Loyola Marymount University promoted Aimee Uen to senior vice president and chief financial officer. Uen, who has worked at the university for 10 years, was most recently vice president for finance and controller. Before joining LMU, Uen was an assurance manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
GameStop CFO Jim Bell is resigning after less than two years. Bell reportedly was forced to resign as part of a push by activist investor Ryan Cohen to “reshape the ailing retailer.” Bell will step down on March 26 and GameStop has launched a search for a replacement. The announcement of his departure came about a month after a trading frenzy fueled by retail investors sent GameStop’s stock on a Wall Street rollercoaster ride.