Peer Networks

Elaine joined Lyft as Chief Financial Officer on January 3, 2022. At Lyft Elaine oversees all aspects of finance and accounting, treasury, investor relations, and M&A. Prior to joining Lyft, Elaine served as the CFO and VP, Finance for Amazon Studios and served in that role from July 2019 through December 2021. In her role as CFO of Amazon Studios, Elaine oversaw portfolio and financial planning for Amazon’s global slate of original film and television programming and studio operations, and she added Prime Video Marketing Finance to her responsibilities in September 2021. Her team included financial planning and analysis, strategy, business intelligence, data science and advanced analytics in addition to production finance.

Prior to joining Amazon, Elaine served as CFO of Hulu for six years from 2013-2019 during a time of pivotal change and disruption in the media and entertainment industry. In her role at Hulu, Elaine interfaced with Hulu’s Board of Directors on Hulu’s financial performance and all growth and investment opportunities, and she led Hulu’s financial planning and analysis, accounting, strategy and corporate development, and advanced analytics teams.

Before Hulu, Elaine worked at The Walt Disney Company for 19 years, most recently as SVP of Corporate Strategy, Business Development and Technology where she led various acquisitions, new business initiatives, and strategic investments domestically and internationally. Early in her career, Elaine spent summers as a Summer Associate at McKinsey & Company and as a Summer Financial Analyst at Morgan Stanley & Company.

Elaine holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a B.A. in Economics and History with Distinction from Stanford University. Elaine currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Marlborough, a school for girls in grades 7 through 12 in Los Angeles, California. Elaine is involved with the Scouts of America (formerly Boy Scouts of America), Las Madrinas which raises funds for Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles, and she also chairs various fundraising efforts for Stanford University and Harvard Business School.

Elaine is married to Darren Seidel, and they have three children ages 18, 16, and 13. Elaine enjoys the outdoors, backpacking, hiking, skiing, stand up paddle surfing, running, and adventure travel.

As CFO, Alison is not only responsible for the company’s financial functions, including accounting, audit, treasury, financial planning, and investor relations, but she’s also responsible for translating the complex financial data into understandable points shared with the whole company. She’s passionate about data-driven decision making, and has built tech stacks to support the finance function and further enable the company to grow.

Alison was instrumental in driving Canopy’s $35M Series BB fundraise in 2021, and is closely connected with the company’s board of directors in communicating the expansion strategies and financial models for the growing SaaS company.

Alison's more than 15 year career has found her in both startups and Fortune 500 companies, working in corporate finance, financial planning and analysis, decision support, and risk management. She's held finance roles at American Express in New York City, Walmart.com in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Vivint Smart Home in Utah.

Alison is a graduate of the University of Montana and received her MBA from New York University Stern School of Business. Alison loves spending time with her family and is working hard to develop her pickleball and cross-country skiing skills, depending on the season.