Spotify will be experiencing a big loss as its Chief Financial Officer, Barry McCarthy has announced his retirement in January, 2020. 

McCarthy, the pioneer behind a novel method to take companies public, is leaving his role as the CFO at Spotify. Last year, he developed the idea to take Spotify public — what is known as a direct listing — is one of the most important recent developments in the world of finance. When a company opts for a direct listing instead of a traditional IPO, it goes public without selling any new shares and essentially lets the market “figure out” the pricing on the first day of trading.

The introduction of direct listings and the momentum that they have picked up in the last few months have elevated McCarthy into something of elder statesmen in the world of tech.

While McCarthy will leave his position of CFO but rejoin Spotify’s board of directors, on which he previously served before taking a seat in the Spotify C-Suite. 

On his Retirement, Daniel Ek, Founder of Spotify said in media, “I know no other CFO that could have taken us public and led us as steadily through an innovative direct listing and the time that has followed.”

Prior to Spotify, McCarthy spent eight years as the CFO at Netflix under Reed Hastings. He took that company public and helps transform the video rental and streaming company into the behemoth it is today. 

According to media reports, Paul Vogel who is currently Spotify’s head of investor relations will succeed McCarthy.

Image Credits: Vox.com