Shannon Nash, the CFO of Alphabet’s drone unit Wing, took a highly unusual path to the C-suite—while raising a child with autism

She’s a finance chief, a CPA, an attorney, an award-winning documentary film producer, and a director on several boards who names Debbie Allen as one of her greatest mentors. Meet Shannon Nash, CFO at the on-demand drone delivery company Wing.

The first time Nash received a package via a drone delivery, it was Blue Bell ice cream. “It was like seven-year-old Shannon’s dream because I grew up a huge fan of ‘The Jetsons,’” she tells me. “I loved that cartoon. And I used to say, one day will that be real?”

Wing, operated by Google parent Alphabet Inc., recently announced that it’s working with Walmart to launch drone delivery in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex in the coming weeks. Wing will start delivering out of a Walmart Supercenter in Frisco, Texas, and by the end of the year expand to a second nearby store. The deliveries will be available to homes within approximately six miles of the stores. 

“With the Walmart partnership, we’ll be able to reach more than 60,000 homes,” Nash says. “We’ve done over 350,000 commercial deliveries in three continents. Most of those were in Australia. And we are now expanding those deliveries in the United States.”

‘Debbie was somebody who believed in me’

Nash joined Wing in 2022 bringing with her more than 20 years of experience in finance, law, and global strategy. One of her many leadership positions was as senior counsel at Amgen, a biotechnology company. It taught her a lot about working for a big, publicly traded company, and global operations, which is applicable to Wing as it’s part of Alphabet, Nash says. At Amgen, she gained better insight into the finance function, ultimately deciding that was an area that she wanted to pursue. 

But Nash came to a pivotal point in her career where she needed a schedule that prioritized flexibility and family. And that’s where Debbie Allen, renowned producer, director, writer, actor, and choreographer, came in. 

“Bill and I have an adult son who is autistic; he is now 25 years old,” says Nash, who is married to Bill Nash, CFO of Cruise, an autonomous vehicle company. In her son’s younger years, there were struggles in terms of therapies and finding adequate childcare, Nash explains. “And both Bill and I had careers at the time,” she says. “How do you juggle those types of things? I was having challenges figuring out how I could still have my career with multiple appointments in the middle of the day. It was very challenging, back in the mid-2000s for working parents.”

Nash continues, “I was very fortunate because I met Debbie Allen’s husband, Norm Nixon. Norm said, ‘Hey, my wife really needs some help running her organization and I would love to have you talk to her. He took a chance on me.” Allen wound up offering Nash the position of executive director of the Debbie Allen Dance Academy and a flexible schedule to be able to put the needs of her son first. 

“What I had in Debbie was somebody who believed in me,” Nash says. “And she said it on so many occasions. She was supportive of my personal situation. I remember her saying, ‘I don’t really care about sitting here from nine to five, just get the work done.’” Nash administered a budget of several million dollars, restructured cash management, and led compliance, among other functions.

Nash says that role created her interest in startups. “I was doing everything from operations, HR, legal, finance, everything that you can think of to run that organization,” she says. This would lead to Nash accumulating years of experience helping companies grow and scale rapidly.

After working with Allen, Nash started building connections in the media world, even becoming the CFO at Sunseeker Media, a production company. While there, she helped produce Colored My Mind, a documentary about autism with a focus on parents of color. It won the American Pavilion Film Award in Cannes.

Along with the operational side, Nash had to raise money for productions. She says it’s similar to working in finance at a tech startup where you need to raise money from investors, like private equity, and VCs.

When it comes to Nash’s CFO role at Wing, she aims to empower her team. “I want people who are critical thinkers, lifelong learners, who thrive in learning new stuff,” she says. In her spare time, she’s still producing. Nash is the executive producer of the documentary OnBoard, which chronicles the rise of Black women on America’s boards, and had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in June. And, Nash also plans to resume leading Zumba classes one day, which she really enjoys. 

“I tell Bill that in my retirement, I’m going to teach Zumba,” she quips.  

Have a good weekend.

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

Leaderboard

Some notable moves this week:

Matt Sable was named CFO for Commercial Banking at JPMorgan Chase. Sable will report to Doug Petno, CEO of Commercial Banking, and Jeremy Barnum, CFO for JPMorgan Chase. Throughout his 22-year career at the firm, Sable has held a number of key leadership roles across the bank, most recently as the Group Head for Corporate Client Banking’s Financial Institutions Group and previously as the Head of Strategy for Commercial Banking.

Dave Loretta was named CFO at The Honest Company (Nasdaq: HNST), a consumer products company, effective Sept. 25. Loretta succeeds Kelly Kennedy, who stepped down from her role as CFO after two and a half years. With more than 25 years of experience, Loretta most recently served as SVP and CFO of Duluth Trading. Before his role at Duluth Trading, Loretta spent more than 14 years in a series of roles at Nordstrom and Restoration Hardware.

Kendra Adams was named CFO at C4 Therapeutics, Inc. (C4T) (Nasdaq: CCCC), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, effective Sept. 18. Adams will succeed Lauren White, who will be leaving C4T to pursue a new role. Adams joined C4T in November 2020 as SVP of investor relations and corporate communications and a member of the company’s management team. She joined C4T from Agios Pharmaceuticals, where she held investor relations roles of increasing responsibility during her tenure. 

R Craig Bealmear was named CFO at Oklo Inc., a fission technology and nuclear fuel recycling company. During Bealmear’s 28-year career at BP, he had a variety of significant responsibilities that culminated in his role as CFO for its North America downstream division. In his most recent role as a member of Renewable Energy Group's (Nasdaq: REGI) senior leadership team, Bealmear led all financial activities.

Mike Lenihan was named CFO at CKE Restaurants Holdings Inc., company of the brands Carl's Jr. and Hardee's. Lenihan brings 20 years of experience from Yum! Brands, most recently serving as VP of planning and analysis and treasury. In his Yum! brand roles with KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and others, Lenihan served in strategic planning, distribution management, development, mergers and acquisitions, and finance positions.

Robert L. Schrader was named senior vice president and CFO at Paychex, Inc., effective Oct. 13. Efrain Rivera, currently VP and CFO, will retire, effective Oct. 12. Schrader is currently VP of finance and investor relations at Paychex. He has served as vice president and controller, senior director of financial planning and analysis, and joined Paychex in December 2014 as director of internal audit. Before Paychex, Schrader was CFO for Unither Manufacturing, LLC. 

Have an upcoming CFO move you'd like to be considered for an exclusive in CFO Daily? Send me an email.

Big deal

Deloitte has launched its 2023 Tax Transformation Trends survey, which surveys opinions from more than 300 senior global tax and finance executives. It examines how tax departments are undergoing fundamental transformation in response to today’s challenging legal and regulatory landscape.

One of several key findings indicates outsourcing remains a common practice among tax departments. About three-quarters of respondents said their company uses outsourcing as their primary approach for one or more tax activities—either traditional outsourcing or managed-services outsourcing in which a third-party provider runs an activity, according to the report.

Going deeper

Here are a few Fortune weekend reads:

"A tale of 2 housing markets: The red-hot bottom and ice-cold top" by Lance Lambert

"A $15m bonus and early retirement: The former Qantas CEO’s apparent exit deal has been dubbed the ‘swindle of the century’" by Orianna Rosa Royle 

"Morgan Stanley top strategist Mike Wilson says investors are destined for disappointment as economic growth will be slower than expected" by Eleanor Pringle

"The 5-step process this neuroscientist and mom of 4 uses to be a happier parent" by L'Oreal Thompson Payton

Overheard

"It’s never gonna judge you. It’s never gonna be resentful. It’s never going to be upset that you didn’t listen to it. It’s never going to go on vacation."

Billionaire Marc Andreessen, a cofounder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm, said of artificial intelligence on an episode of the Huberman Lab podcast on Monday. He foresees a future where A.I. will serve as a person’s companion, helping with every aspect of their lives.

Andreessen’s predictions carry weight, Fortune reported. Andreessen Horowitz is one of the most influential venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, and he has led multimillion-dollar funding rounds for several A.I. startups, including Alphabet’s self-driving car company Waymo and ChatGPT maker OpenAI.