Zach Gibson/Getty Images
- Reddit has hired Drew Vollero as its first-ever chief financial officer, it said Friday.
- The former Snap and Mattel exec will work across tax, financial planning, and advertising.
- Reddit CEO Steve Huffman told the NYT the company was “thinking” about filing for an IPO.
- Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.
Social-media site Reddit has hired its first-ever chief financial officer (CFO) as it edges closer to going public.
The company announced Friday it had appointed former Snap, PepsiCo, and Mattel exec Drew Vollero to the role.
The news follows Reddit’s $6 billion valuation in February, and years of discussion by Reddit execs about the possibility of going public.
When asked whether Reddit would file for an IPO, Huffman told the New York Times Friday: “We’re thinking about it. We’re working toward that moment.” Reddit didn’t have a timeline for the filing, he added.
Reddit has hit the headlines in 2021 after day traders banded together on r/Wallstreetbets, a group on the website, to bump up the prices of several “meme stocks.” This caused GameStop stock to jump massively and some of Wall Street’s prominent hedge funds to close their bearish bets, with hefty losses.
The story generated huge interest in Reddit, which cashed in on the publicity by taking out an ad during the Super Bowl.
Huffman also testified at a House Financial Services Committee hearing into the saga in late February, where he said that investing advice on the site was "among the best."
In the midst of the chaos, the company said it had raised $250 million in a late-stage funding round in February at a valuation of $6 billion - double its previous valuation from a funding round two years earlier.
Vollero has more than 30 years experience in finance roles, including at Yum Brands, Taco Bell, PepsiCo, and Mattel. His most recent role was at security company Allied Universal, and prior to that he served as the first CFO of Snapchat parent company Snap - where he led the company through its $33 billion IPO in 2017.
In his role at Reddit, Vollero will work across areas including tax, treasury, audit, financial planning, sales finance, accounting, procurement, and investor relations, the company said. Reddit said 2020 was a "pivotal" year in its advertising business, and that its advertising revenue had increased 90% year-over-year in the fourth quarter.
Vollero is set to start the role later this month. His favorite subreddits are r/dadjokes, r/worldnews, r/travel, and r/leadership, Reddit said.
His appointment is expected to be followed by other executive hires. Huffman told The Wall Street Journal in February that multiple new executives would be starting in the coming months, adding that the company planned to double its employee count to 1,400 in 2021.