Eventbrite, the event planning and ticketing platform, has hired Silicon Valley veteran Mark Rubash to serve as its first-ever CFO.
Rubash has served in high-profile financial roles for some 20 years. His most recent high-profile CFO role was at Shutterfly, the publicly-traded photo-sharing company where he headed up financial operations from November 2007 to February 2012. His resume also includes time as a Senior Vice President of Finance at Yahoo, and the VP of Finance and investor relations at eBay.
Eventbrite, which has raised some $76 million in venture capital, has been quite vocal in the past about its intention to eventually hold an IPO. Hiring a CFO with public company experience such as Rubash is often seen as a smoke signal of sorts from a privately-held company that a public offering is more clearly on the horizon. Last year, Eventbrite co-founder and CEO Kevin Hartz reportedly told an audience at a conference that the company’s “next capital raise will be an IPO.”
In a press release announcing the appointment, Rubash is quoted as saying, “Having had the opportunity to work with eBay and PayPal in their formative years, I’m extremely excited to help build on Eventbrite’s success thus far and accelerate the adoption of its platform by event organizers throughout the world.”
This is the second bit of big news we’ve heard from Eventbrite in recent days: Last week, the company announced it has crossed $1.5 billion in gross sales and 100 million tickets sold. And the growth seems to be accelerating: $600 million of those sales and 36 million of those tickets were completed in 2012 alone.
Here’s a bit more about Rubash, from Eventbrite’s announcement:
“As the senior member of eBay’s Finance leadership team from early 2001 through late 2005, he had global responsibility for all eBay Finance, Investor Relations, Accounting, Tax, Treasury and Facilities functions. At Yahoo!, Rubash had global Finance responsibility for the company’s paid search and display advertising businesses as well as its core ecommerce properties. In addition to his significant industry experience, Rubash spent nearly 20 years in the public accounting profession-serving clients in a broad range of industries. During his eight-year tenure as an audit partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Rubash served as the Global Leader of the firm’s Internet Industry Practice and the Partner in Charge of its software practice in Silicon Valley. Rubash currently serves on the Boards of Intuitive Surgical, Iron Planet and Line 6, and has also served in executive roles at HeartFlow, Rearden Commerce and Critical Path.”