Dive Brief:
- Electric vehicle maker Rivian granted company veteran Derek Mulvey an award of 125,392 restricted stock units on Sept. 21, based on continued service as Mulvey steps into its interim CFO chair effective Friday, according to a recent securities filing. He succeeds Claire McDonough, who departed from her role after a six-year tenure.
- The RSU award — valued at $1.4 million as of the company’s current stock price of $11.74 per share — is set to vest in two tranches on Feb. 15, 2027 and Aug. 15, 2027, respectively, according to the Thursday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Irvine, Calif.-based company also increased Mulvey’s base salary to $400,000 and provided him with a target annual incentive bonus opportunity equal to 40% of his base pay.
- Also Thursday, Rivian reported results for its third quarter, noting a 46% year-over-year jump in its deliveries largely credited to higher demand for its R2 vehicles, according to a press release.
Dive Insight:
Mulvey, 36, is assuming the interim chair at a time when the cohort of CFOs is trending younger. The average age of finance chiefs at the point of hiring fell to about 48 years old in 2026, marking the youngest average in a decade, a recent report by Crist Kolder Associates noted.
Mulvey first joined Rivian in 2021 as its director of strategic finance and investor relations, assuming his current seat as VP of finance in March of 2025, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to Rivian, he spent six years at J.P. Morgan in the mergers and acquisitions segment, beginning his career as a sales analyst for the financial institution.
“I’m excited to step into the interim CFO role and build on the foundation” established by McDonough, Mulvey said Thursday during the earnings call.
The EV maker announced McDonough will step down after nearly six years in its top finance seat in August to move to the East Coast and be closer to family, CFO Dive reported at the time. McDonough is slated to take the CFO role for electric equipment provider GE Vernova on Jan. 1 of next year. The EV maker has initiated a comprehensive search of both internal and external candidates in order to find a permanent successor, according to the Aug. 27 company filing.
The interim CFO move is occurring as the EV maker updated its vehicle delivery guidance for the full year after seeing a rise in its third quarter, according to earnings results also published Thursday. The company now anticipates full-year deliveries will reach a range between 67,000 to 70,000 units, compared to previous guidance of 65,000 to 70,000 units.
The company’s R2 vehicle became its best-selling vehicle by volume in the quarter ended Sept. 30, helping to drive the 46% YoY increase in vehicle deliveries, McDonough said during her final earnings call with the business Thursday.
Bolstered deliveries also helped it to narrow its automotive loss to $80 million compared to $130 million in the prior year period, according to its earnings report. It recorded a net loss attributable to stock holders of $913 million, compared to $1.1 billion for the prior year period, according to the report.
Rivian is making “significant strides” in narrowing its automotive cost per vehicle, Mulvey said Thursday.
“While new vehicle launch complexities in addition to rising costs of core components have and we anticipate will continue to impact our profitability, we expect that R2 will help us achieve a positive Automotive gross margin exit rate for the year,” he said during the call.
The business is also continuing its focus on autonomous technology, which McDonough previously described as a key differentiator for the business. In March, rising research and development spending related to autonomous vehicles and AI caused the company to quietly walk back its profitability targets for 2027, no longer anticipating it will be EBITDA-positive in the coming year, CFO Dive previously reported.
Rivian anticipates “pace of our R&D investment in the strategic area to accelerate in the coming years” as it advances it autonomous tech development across both consumer vehicles and robotaxis, Mulvey said.
