Workday CFO stepping down, former Apple exec to take over

Dive Brief:

Enterprise software company Workday announced that its CFO, Barbara Larson, is stepping down to spend more time with her family.
Effective June 12, Larson will be replaced by Zane Rowe, who most recently served as CFO of software provider VMware, according to a Thursday press release. Rowe also previously did a stint as an Apple sales executive.
"Zane's experience with scaling high-growth organizations, coupled with his deep financial expertise, make him the perfect leader to support Workday's continued momentum as more and more organizations turn to us to help them navigate the changing world of work," Workday co-CEO Carl Eschenbach said in the release.

Dive Insight:

The news coincided with a strong quarterly earnings report from Workday, which provides enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources. The Pleasanton, California-based company achieved total revenues of $1.68 billion for its fiscal 2024 first quarter ending April 30, an increase of 17.4% compared with a year earlier, according to results released Thursday. Subscription revenues were $1.53 billion, an increase of 20.1% from the same period last year.

“We're off to a great start in FY '24 with strong new business bookings, healthy pipelines and continued progress towards our strategic growth initiatives,” Eschenbach said during an earnings call. “And while the macro remains uncertain, we are positioning the business to return to 20%-plus subscription revenue growth when the environment improves.”

Larson said during the Thursday call that Rowe is the “right person to take Workday on the next phase of its incredible growth journey.”

“I look forward to working with him over the next couple of months to ensure a seamless transition,” she said.

Rowe, 52, will join Workday with an annual base salary of $700,000, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

He served as VMware’s CFO from March 2016 to June 2023 in addition to serving as its interim CEO from February 2021 through May 2021. Prior to joining VMware, he served as CFO of EMC, a data storage and management company, from October 2014 until February 2016.

He also previously led North America sales for Apple and served as a CFO for United Airlines.

Larson will continue as an executive vice president of Workday through Nov. 1 and then serve as a consultant to the company through July 8, 2024, according to the SEC filing.

VMware, which is based in Palo Alto, Calif., announced Thursday that Rowe will be replaced by Karen Dykstra, a member of the company’s board of directors and a former CFO of AOL.