Dive Brief:
- Project manager software provider Atlassian hired LinkedIn CFO James Chuong to be its next CFO, effective March 30, according to a company press release on Wednesday. Chuong has been finance chief of LinkedIn, a Microsoft subsidiary, for nearly five of the 13 years he has worked at the social media platform.
- Jordan Levy will succeed him as LinkedIn’s CFO, Chuong wrote in a social media post. Levy has held several finance roles at the social media giant during the past 11 years, most recently as VP of marketplace strategic finance, according to his LinkedIn profile.
- “After 13 transformative years at LinkedIn, I shared with our team today that I've made the decision to move on to my next play and will be wrapping up my time here at the end of March,” Chuong wrote on Wednesday.
Dive Insight:
Chuong’s appointment comes about four months after Atlassian announced that CFO Joe Binz will step down from the role this summer after serving as CFO since September 2022. At the time, Binz said he had a lot of “big life events” coming up for which he wanted to be “fully present,” CFO Dive previously reported.
At Atlassian, Chuong’s compensation will include an annual base salary of $600,000 and a target annual bonus of 75% of the base salary, accorrding to a securities filing. Meanwhile, the offer letter he received also provides for an initial grant of restricted stock units with a target value of $22 million that will vest over four years and a one-time signing bonus of $2 million, according to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Before joining LinkedIn Chuong, 46, worked in investment banking at JPMorgan, Citigroup and Bank of America. He has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of San Diego and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, according to the filing.
At Atlassian, Chuong will oversee the company’s finance and legal teams. Mike Cannon-Brookes, Atlassian CEO and co-founder, praised Chuong as a “strategic thinker” with a deep knowledge of technology who is “excited to help us build the future of teamwork as we accelerate through the AI era,” according to a statement in the release.
The CFO transition is also occurring as the project management software provider continues to bet big on AI, CFO Dive previously reported.
