GE Vernova named Rivian‘s Chief Financial Officer Claire McDonough as its next finance chief on Thursday, the same day the electric vehicle maker announced she would leave on October 30.
McDonough joins the Cambridge, Massachusetts company in November 2026 and takes the Chief Financial Officer title on January 1, 2027.
She succeeds Ken Parks, the first Chief Financial Officer GE Vernova has had, who told the company he wanted to retire in 2027.
Rivian‘s own announcement said only that McDonough was leaving to pursue a new opportunity and relocating to the East Coast.
The statement did not name her destination.
McDonough named it herself in a post on LinkedIn on Thursday afternoon ET, shortly after the two announcements, writing that she was stepping down at the end of October to become GE Vernova’s next Chief Financial Officer.
Derek Mulvey, Rivian‘s VP of Finance, is expected to become Interim Chief Financial Officer on her departure while the company runs a search among internal and external candidates.
The move takes McDonough from a manufacturer that has never turned an annual profit to one of the largest beneficiaries of the electricity build-out.
GE Vernova raised its 2026 guidance at its second-quarter results in July to revenue of $45.5 billion to $46.5 billion, from $44.5 billion to $45.5 billion, and free cash flow of $11.5 billion to $12.5 billion, from $6.5 billion to $7.5 billion.
Rivian reported revenue of $5.9 billion and a net loss of $3.2 billion over the trailing twelve months.
The GE Vernova Role
Parks will remain Chief Financial Officer through the end of 2026, covering the third and fourth quarter earnings calls and the publication of the 2026 annual report.
He moves to a Strategic Advisor role in the first quarter of 2027 and retires in April.
GE Vernova described the appointment as the conclusion of an extensive search.
“She brings a sophisticated blend of capital markets expertise and hands-on operational leadership,” Chief Executive Scott Strazik said of McDonough in the company’s statement.
“Claire is a highly disciplined, detail-oriented leader who thrives in complex, mission-driven environments. I am confident she’s the right leader for GE Vernova as we continue to grow profitably as a company and advance the future of energy,” the CEO added.
Strazik separately credited Parks with building the company’s financial processes across three prior public-company chief financial officer roles.
Parks joined in October 2023 from Owens Corning, before the business was spun out of General Electric, and had previously been finance chief at Mylan and Wesco International.
GE Vernova ended the second quarter with a cash balance of $13.1 billion, up $4.3 billion in the year.
Backlog stood at $163 billion at the end of the first quarter, the most recent figure the company has given, after it bought the remaining half of the Prolec GE joint venture for about $5.3 billion on February 2.
The company employs roughly 85,000 people across about 100 countries and says its technology generates about a quarter of the world’s electricity.
The Rivian Record
McDonough became Rivian‘s Chief Financial Officer in January 2021, arriving from J.P. Morgan, where she was a Managing Director and co-head of the Disruptive Commerce group from September 2014.
She was the second person to hold the role, succeeding Ryan Green, who moved to Senior VP and Corporate Controller on January 19, 2021 and left the company that May.
Her tenure covered the November 2021 initial public offering, which GE Vernova and Rivian both put at $13.7 billion.
Under her, Rivian also closed the joint venture with Volkswagen Group in late 2024, with a total deal size of up to $5.8 billion, and a Department of Energy loan for the planned Georgia plant.
That loan has changed shape without public explanation.
Rivian disclosed the facility at up to $6.6 billion in its fourth-quarter 2024 results, published in February 2025, comprising $6 billion of principal and roughly $600 million of capitalized interest.
The second-quarter 2026 earnings presentation describes an amended and restated arrangement of up to $4.5 billion at 80% loan-to-value, including $0.5 billion of capitalized interest, with a first advance expected by early 2027.
Neither the reason for the reduction nor its effect on the Georgia timeline has been set out by the company.
Her last full quarter was the strongest of her tenure.
Rivian posted revenue of $1.658 billion in the second quarter, up 27.2% year on year, and gross profit of $179 million, a $385 million improvement on the same period of 2025.
Deliveries of 12,194 beat the company’s own outlook of 9,000 to 11,000, prompting a raise in full-year guidance to 65,000 to 70,000 vehicles from 62,000 to 67,000.
McDonough told a conference in March that software and services revenue would grow about 60% in 2026, pushing the segment toward $2.5 billion.
“And that’s driven both by the growth of the joint venture, but also importantly, as the car parc continues to grow and expand, we see a compounding of many of the other services within the portfolio,” she said.
Software and services generated $215 million of gross profit in the second quarter at a 41.7% margin.
The automotive line ran a gross loss of $36 million over the same three months.
In her LinkedIn post, McDonough set out what she counted as the record of her tenure.
“Together, we launched the R1T, R1S, and our commercial van, drove technology innovation and partnerships, built our go-to-market operations, and positioned the company for global scale and profitability with the launch of R2,” she wrote. “Being part of taking Rivian from an ambitious vision to a category-defining enterprise has been the highlight of my career.”
She described leaving the team as bittersweet, thanked Founder and Chief Executive RJ Scaringe and the leadership team, and said she was returning to the East Coast.
She gave no reason for the timing of the move.
Derek Mulvey
Mulvey joined Rivian in 2021, the same year as McDonough, from J.P. Morgan, where he was a Vice President.
He was promoted to Vice President of Finance during 2025, from Senior Director of Strategic Finance and Investor Relations, after Timothy Bei left in March of that year for the battery recycler Redwood Materials.
Rivian says he has worked on financial planning, strategic partnerships, capital allocation and investor relations.
“Claire joined Rivian almost six years ago, and she’s had a meaningful impact on our business and our teams during a transformative period of growth,” Scaringe said. “I’m thrilled that Derek is taking on the interim CFO role. Derek has worked incredibly closely with me, Claire and our leadership team for several years and will enable a seamless transition.”
The handover date leaves an open question about third-quarter results.
Rivian has not announced when it will report, but filed its third-quarter accounts for 2025 on November 4 of that year.
An equivalent schedule in 2026 would put the release after McDonough’s last day and make the print Mulvey’s first as Interim Chief Financial Officer, in the middle of the R2 ramp.
The Finance Bench
The departure continues a pattern of senior turnover.
Chief Accounting Officer Jeffrey Baker resigned in July 2024, and McDonough covered the role on an interim basis.
Three weeks later Chief Commercial Officer Kjell Gruner resigned after eleven months, and in December 2024 he became President and Chief Executive of Volkswagen Group of America.
Chief Communications Officer Sarah O’Brien and Vice President of Manufacturing Tim Fallon both left that August.
Senior VP of Vehicle Programs Donald Novotney was removed from the leadership page the following March.
Interim arrangements have become common at the top of the company.
Scaringe took the marketing function himself in October 2025 after a third round of layoffs that year, and Rivian went on to name a Vice President of Marketing in April 2026 after saying in January that it had no plans to hire one.
The finance team itself has been rebuilt over the same period.
Sreela Venkataratnam, previously Tesla‘s Vice President of Finance and Business Operations, became Chief Accounting Officer in 2025, and Chip Newcom arrived from Equinix that September as Vice President of Investor Relations.
Rivian‘s 2026 proxy statement listed only three executive officers: Scaringe, McDonough and Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Legal Officer Michael Callahan.
Her exit takes that to two.
The Equity Question
What McDonough forfeits by leaving has not been disclosed by either company.
Her most recent vesting was on August 15, when 75,940 restricted stock units converted and 38,640 shares were withheld to cover tax.
She held 819,178 shares directly after selling 8,023 shares at an average $16.00 on August 20, the latest in a series of disposals running back to May under a Rule 10b5-1 plan adopted on September 2, 2025.
Whether GE Vernova compensates her for unvested Rivian awards will appear in its filings.
McDonough has served on the board of AutoZone since April 2025 and on the board of the Volkswagen Group joint venture.
