Facebook上市背后的推手

????2009年，戴維?埃伯斯曼時任生物科技巨頭基因泰克（Genentech）首席財務官，某種意義上他也是該公司董事長阿特?萊文森的門生。這一年，埃伯斯曼協助基因泰克完成了金額達460億美元的一項交易。交易完成后，羅氏控股（Roche Holdings）成為公司的全資股東。此后不久，他就開始接到美國一些大公司打來的招聘電話。

????但埃伯斯曼最后決定加入一家初創企業，雖然當時這家公司的員工人數還不到1,000人，營收微薄，而且首席財務官也像走馬燈似地換個不停。

????現在來看，這一步險棋至少獲得了回報。

????作為Facebook的首席財務官，現年42歲的埃伯斯曼是這家公司轟動一時的IPO背后主要推手之一。

????埃伯斯曼為人溫和謙遜，他在基因泰克的15年職業生涯堪稱輝煌。1994年，他作為業務開發分析師加盟基因泰克。他引起了時任首席執行官萊文森的注意【萊文森后來加入了蘋果公司（Apple），成為了公司的董事長】。萊文森告訴我，他讓埃伯斯曼走上了有別于他人的特殊發展道路，作為有前途的管理人員培養，每隔兩、三年會得到提拔，接受新的挑戰。

????短短幾年后，埃伯斯曼開始管理產品開發業務。他展現出卓越的運營技能之后，被提升為基因泰克制造業務負責人，管理著該公司當時約8,000名雇員的一半左右。

????2006年，他被任命為基因泰克的執行副總裁兼首席財務官，并贏得了善于從長計議的名聲。例如，他幫助推動基因泰克接受了某些成本高昂的臨床試驗，這些試驗的結果不確定，但潛在回報巨大。萊文森稱：“這些決定可能是當時能做出的最明智的決定，但如果看看公司下一季度或下一年的情況，確實很難下定決心?！?/p>

????作為首席財務官，埃伯斯曼很快贏得了投資者和分析師的尊重和欽佩。券商國際策略暨投資集團（ISI Group）的生物科技和醫藥行業高級分析師馬克?舒恩鮑姆稱：“當時很多人，包括我自己在內，都說：‘基因泰克究竟是怎么了，居然找一個34歲的人做首席財務官?！保ㄊ聦嵣习２孤敃r是36歲。）但舒恩鮑姆表示，第一次面談時，他就很快信服了?！鞍２孤哌M來，開口說話，30秒后，我就說：‘我明白了’。大家都覺得他是個聰明人?！?/p>

????舒恩鮑姆說，埃伯斯曼在華爾街頗受歡迎，部分是因為他愿意直面投資者的問題?！八撕芎?，一點架子都沒有，”他說。他還說，羅氏當初收購基因泰克的談判過程很微妙，埃伯斯曼在其間發揮了重要作用，幫助基因泰克股東實現了利益的最大化。

????Shortly after he helped to close the $46 billion deal that turned Roche Holdings into the full owner of Genentech in 2009, David Ebersman, who was chief financial officer of the biotechnology giant and something of a protégé to Chairman Art Levinson, started fielding recruiting calls from some of America's biggest companies.

????But Ebersman decided to join a startup with fewer than 1,000 employees, meager revenues and a history of cycling through CFOs

????The gambit paid off, to say the least.

????As chief financial officer of Facebook, Ebersman, who is 42, has been one of the chief drivers behind the company's blockbuster IPO filing.

????A quiet and unassuming executive, Ebersman had a stellar, 15-year career at Genentech (RHHBY). He joined in 1994 as a business development analyst. He caught the eye of Levinson, who was CEO at the time (he would later join the Apple (AAPL) board and become its chairman). Levinson tells me he placed Ebersman on special track in which promising executives were promoted and given new challenges every two or three years.

????Within a few years, Ebersman was running product development. After proving his skills as an operator, he was promoted to head Genentech's manufacturing, a position that gave him oversight of about half of the company's 8,000 or so employees at the time.

????In 2006, he was named executive vice president and CFO, and earned a reputation for reinforcing long-term thinking. For example he helped push the company to embrace certain costly clinical trials whose results were uncertain but whose potentially payoffs were huge. "These decisions can be the wisest you can make, but if you are looking at the next quarter or at the next year, they are hard to swallow," says Levinson.

????As CFO, Ebersman quickly earned the respect an admiration of investors and analysts. "A lot of people, myself included, said 'what the hell is going on at Genentech that they are naming a 34-year-old as CFO," says Mark Schoenebaum, a senior analyst covering biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies at the ISI Group. (Ebersman was actually 36 at the time.) But Schoenenbaum says that at their first face-to-face meeting he was quickly mollified. "He comes in, and within 30 seconds of his opening his mouth, I said, 'I get it.' He comes across as brilliant."

????Schoenebaum says Ebersman was well liked on Wall Street, in part because of his willingness to deal forthrightly with investors' questions. "He is a very nice guy with not a shred of ego," he says. And he says Ebersman played an important role in helping to get the most value for Genentech shareholders during delicate takeover negotiations with Roche.