Verily announced Friday that it had raised $1 billion in a funding round that Alphabet, its parent company, led, and said it will promote Stephen Gillett, Verily’s president, to CEO as part of a management shuffle.
In a memo sent to employees on Friday and seen by Insider, Andy Conrad, Verily’s current CEO, said he would move to the role of executive chairman effective January 1, 2023 to “chart a path toward our independence.”
“I’ve come to realize that I have drifted away from my true passion — science,” Conrad said in the memo. “So at the New Year I want to move away from running the company day to day to concentrate on projects for which I have a deep interest and can contribute in a meaningful way.”
Insider previously reported that Conrad had taken a step back from day-to-day responsibilities as Gillett had increasingly absorbed more leadership responsibilities.
Additionally, Conrad also said Deepak Ahuja, the company’s chief financial officer, will depart the company. Some employees had believed Ahuja, who was formerly the CFO of Tesla, would help take Verily to an initial public offering.
Conrad said the company would search for a new CFO “with a deep healthcare background for the next phase of our growth.” A spokesperson said Ahuja would depart at the end of this month.
Conrad also discussed the trajectory of the business and said it was increasingly focused on fewer projects and finding ways to make those products more integrated. “This is a way to create a self propagating tailwind — and to build a successful integrated business, not a collection of companies that work well but don’t interact with one another,” he said in the memo.
Some employees have criticized the company in the past for focusing on too many projects, from surgical robots to wearable tech. It also has a team working on wiping out disease-carrying mosquitoes.
Verily’s clinical-research business is one key area for the company right now. Last year, it hired Amy Abernethy, a former FDA deputy commissioner, to lead the program executives named Baseline.
Conrad told employees that the company needs to “exert pressure on many fronts” to succeed in healthcare.
“There are entrenched incumbents amongst each of the constituents who benefit from maintaining the status quo, so we have considerable work to do,” he wrote in the memo.
Read the memo Conrad sent in full below.
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Dear All,
Now six months out from our inaugural Strategy Week, it is time for an important update about the state of our company and how we will move forward to realize our ambition.
State of the Business and Continued Investor Confidence
Verily is undergoing a tremendous transformation as we increasingly pivot to become a more commercially focused company. As you all know, we are working to position Verily to win and concentrating our efforts on fewer programs. Reallocating resources to fewer projects should increase productivity and the pace of advancement of these programs.
More importantly, I believe we have arrived at a strategic framework that integrates these efforts in such a way that we create a real symbiosis, so success in any project enhances the likelihood of success in all the projects. This is a way to create a self propagating tailwind – and to build a successful integrated business, not a collection of companies that work well but don’t interact with one another.
Remember it is our mission to bring about precision health and we will only overcome the incredible inertia of this world if we stick to our notion that point solutions will not effect change. We have to exert pressure on many fronts; we have to provide solutions to patients, providers and payers. There are entrenched incumbents amongst each of the constituents who benefit from maintaining the status quo, so we have considerable work to do.
In this uncertain economic environment, it’s very good news that we are able to secure an additional equity investment of $1 billion led by Alphabet. This gives us the ability to move forward with our strategy. We will maintain financial discipline with these additional funds. Our strategic intent is sound and it is working.
Leadership Changes for Our Next Phase of Growth
I am heavily conflicted about the next bit of news because I am filled with a mixture of gratitude and regret to announce that after helping us grow up, Deepak will be transitioning to an advisory role as he will be joining a new venture. He will end his role as CFO and leave Verily at the end of September. While Deepak leaves big shoes to fill, we’ll take this opportunity to look for a new CFO with a deep healthcare background for the next phase of our growth. Deepak has been a force for good and I will be forever grateful for all he has done.
There will also be some changes for me and the day to day running of the company. I’ve come to realize that I have drifted away from my true passion – science. So at the New Year I want to move away from running the company day to day to concentrate on projects for which I have a deep interest and can contribute in a meaningful way. I want to spend more time seeing customers and partners and working with our investors to chart a path toward our independence. Effective January 1, I will be transitioning to Executive Chairman, remaining part of the company but playing a different role than I have to date.
With the change in my role, it is with great pleasure that I announce that Stephen will be taking over as CEO. I brought Stephen here more than two years ago to help us optimize our operations and although we still have a lot of work to do, the progress he is making gives me great confidence in the future of Verily. Verily is increasingly becoming a more commercial stage company that can benefit from his strength in operations, technology, commercial scale and cybersecurity. This change is being made as part of a thoughtful succession plan that has been in the works for some time now as the company has grown, with a multi-month timeline to allow for an orderly transition.
Verily is finally in a place where I think our future is now in our hands. It has been 10 years since I first came to Google and seven years since Jess and I refined our vision for Verily. This has gone by in what seems like the blink of an eye. We are in a solid position now with the multidisciplinary talent we need to win, an infusion of capital from committed investors, a sharpened focus on precision health and top priority projects, and a new phase of leadership that lets me do what I love most and Stephen to do what he does best.
I’m excited about the path forward and grateful for your continued efforts.
Andy
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