Airbnb Inc. will soon have a new chief financial officer.
A report from Bloomberg states that people with knowledge of the matter is saying that Airbnb is close to hiring Laurence Tosi, Blackstone's chief financial officer and senior managing director, to be their own chief financial officer.
The position has been vacant since Andrew Swain left the San Francisco-based company last September.
Tosi, a BA, a JD and an MBA from Georgetown University, provides Airbnb with an extensive array of skills and experience. He started his career with General Electric as director of business development, according to his profile on Blackstone's website.
He then joined Merril Lynch & Co. in 1999 and held several senior positions, including Chief Operating Officer for the Global Markets and Investment Banking, Finance Director as well as head of Strategy and Business Development.
He joined Blackstone in 2008, where he handles the global finance, treasury, technology and corporate development functions of Blackstone and serves on the firm's Management Committee.
Bloomberg also reports that Tosi has been interested in working in the technology industry.
While he was working in Merril Lynch & Co. he helped establish the Ipreo Holdings LLC, a provider of financial data. In Blackstone, he helped start the iLevel, a tool that gathers data from an investment portfolio and packages it for reporting to clients.
In 2010, Steve Jobs offered Tosi to be the chief financial officer of Apple. He turned it down after telling CEO Schwarzman.
Tosi, 47, joins one of Silicon Valley's most successful startups.
Airbnb, founded in 2008, is a community marketplace for people to list, discover and book unique accommodations from around the world.
Bloomberg reports that Airbnb was in talks to raise another round of financing last June. This year, the company is projecting a revenue of $900 million.
Airbnb has preferred a more private fundraising round, instead of an initial public offering. But the hiring of Tosi should position them better in case they decide to go public, according to Reuters.
