Lyft names Elaine Paul new CFO

Yahoo Finance's Brian Sozzi discusses Lyft appointing Amazon Studios' Elaine Paul as its new CFO.

Video Transcript

BRIAN CHEUNG: But we want to stay on the theme of ride hailing but talk about Lyft. So Lyft, the company saying yesterday that has tapped Elaine Paul as CFO, replacing Brian Roberts, who is stepping down from the role. And Paul comes from Amazon Studios where she's currently the CFO and vice president.

So Brian Sozzi, I know you've been watching this space pretty closely. A pretty big change at the top of this company that's been really having an interesting road after it went public.

BRIAN SOZZI: Yeah, and I exchanged a quick message with now outgoing CFO Brian Roberts, and I told him, look, hey, man, you're going out on top, and he is. Lyft over the past few years has done a very, very good job of just improving its operating profits. It is now driving adjusted operating profits, and it has done so much faster than Uber. Sure, they have had to streamline their operations, but they have got their operating profits where they need to be to, I think, alleviate some of the concerns on the Street regarding this ride-hailing-focused model.

But to your point-- and, Brian, I should note he's going to announce where he's going next in a couple days. I think it's going to be a little bit of a career change for him. But again, I mean, he helped to bring the company public, and he helped to turn the company around on an operating-profit basis surely.

But you look at Elaine Paul, I mean, no slouch. She starts effective January 3. Many years at Amazon Studios. Since 2019, she was the CFO and VP of finance for Amazon Studios. So Lyft certainly getting a very experienced CFO to continue to lead their turnaround.

BRIAN CHEUNG: Yeah, interesting conversation with Brian Roberts you got there, Brian. Not to be confused with Brian Roberts of Comcast fame, by the way, a different Brian Roberts. Just--

BRIAN SOZZI: Or Brian Cheung.

BRIAN CHEUNG: Important to point-- yeah. Yeah, there's too many Brians out here, obviously. That's the big theme.