Cantor Fitzgerald expects Rivian to “pursue a permanent CFO replacement by early next year,” as the EV maker prepares for the departure of Chief Financial Officer Claire McDonough at the end of October.
“Recall as well that the company previously announced that its CFO, Claire McDonough, will be stepping down on 10/30, after nearly six years, and we expect the company to pursue a permanent CFO replacement by early next year,” Cantor analyst Andres Sheppard wrote in a client note on Monday seen by EV.
The note comes days after Rivian’s Vice President and Corporate Controller, Jon Franklin, said he had left the companyafter four and a half years.
Rivian has not announced Franklin’s departure or named a successor.
The company’s shares closed at $15.47 on Friday and were trading 0.71% lower on Monday’s pre-market session at $15.36.
CFO Transition
McDonough notified Rivian on August 24 that she would resign effective October 30 to become CFO of GE Vernova, the company said on August 27.
Her resignation “is not the result of any disagreement with the Company on any matters related to its financial reporting, operations, policies or practices,” Rivian said in its filing.
McDonough will join GE Vernova in November and take over as its CFO on January 1, 2027, GE Vernova said on August 27.
Derek Mulvey, Rivian’s VP of Finance and a former J.P. Morgan banker, is expected to become interim CFO when she leaves.
Rivian is considering internal and external candidates for the permanent role, the company said.
Franklin, who joined in March 2022 and became VP and Corporate Controller in April 2024, thanked McDonough and Rivian’s two chief accounting officers since its IPO, Jeffrey Baker and Sreela Venkataratnam, in his LinkedIn post.
Baker resigned effective July 27, 2024, and Venkataratnam, a former Tesla finance executive, succeeded him as Chief Accounting Officer on March 10, 2025.
McDonough named both Franklin and Mulvey in January 2025 among the Rivian employees she thanked for work on the company’s $6.6 billion Department of Energy loan for its Georgia plant.
Rivian renegotiated the loan down to $4.5 billion in April, while raising the planned initial capacity of the Georgia plant to 300,000 vehicles a year from 200,000.
“Stay tuned for an update soon as to where I’m headed next,” he wrote.
The departures extend a run of changes in Rivian’s senior finance team.
VP of Investor Relations Tim Bei left for Redwood Materials in 2025, and Chip Newcom took over the role that year.
Third-Quarter Deliveries
Cantor expects Rivian to report third-quarter production and deliveries this week.
The firm estimates deliveries of 18,228 vehicles, below the Visible Alpha consensus of 18,547, according to the note. That would be up 38.1% from 13,201 a year earlier, and up 49.5% from 12,194 in the second quarter.
Rivian delivered 22,559 vehicles in the first half, according to its quarterly releases.
It reaffirmed in the second quarter its 2026 delivery outlook of 65,000 to 70,000 vehicles, which it had raised from 62,000 to 67,000, Sheppard noted.
At Cantor’s third-quarter estimate, Rivian would need about 24,200 deliveries in the fourth quarter to reach the low end of that range.
Cantor expects combined R1 and electric delivery van volumes to be “relatively flat with last year,” with the R2 accounting for the growth.
R2 Pricing
Rivian began R2 deliveries with the Performance trim with Launch Package, priced from $57,990, and plans a Premium trim at $53,990 in late 2026 and a Standard trim at $48,490 in early 2027, according to the note.
“We continue to expect R2 deliveries to materially boost customer demand (driven by the more competitive price point and the recently unveiled autonomy features),” Sheppard wrote.
Rivian’s approach to AI and autonomy could “materially improve the unit economics and likely capture meaningful autonomy and EV market share (over several years),” he wrote.
Cantor rates Rivian Neutral. The firm had maintained its $19 price target on July 31, according to Wall Street research archive PriceTarget.
