Facebook is undergoing one of the biggest executive reshuffles in its history, the company announced internally today, Recode reports. Mark Zuckerberg is still the king of the castle, but everything below him is taking a different shape as WhatsApp, Messenger and Facebook’s core app get new leaders.
Facebook has confirmed these changes to TechCrunch.
The company has been reorganized into three main groups: “Family of Apps,” which encompasses Instagram, Facebook’s core app, Messenger and WhatsApp; “New Platforms and Infrastructure,” which cover AI, AR/VR, blockchain and engineering teams; and “Central Product Services,” which will handle ads, analytics and product management teams.
The biggest moves?
- Exec Chris Cox appears to be taking the biggest power move here as he will lead the new Family of Apps group.
- David Marcus will notably be stepping down from his role as head of Messenger to lead an exploratory blockchain group under CTO Mike Schroepfer with Instagram’s Kevin Weil.
- Chris Daniels of Facebook’s Internet.org will be taking over WhatsApp after CEO Jan Koum announced he was leaving last week.
Interestingly, it doesn’t seem as if anyone is actually leaving, rather the positions are just being moved around elaborately to shift responsibility and give more management power to some emerging leaders at the company while getting some seasoned veterans at the company to tackle more emerging technologies.
The announcement comes after a prolonged period of controversy surrounding user privacy issues at the company. The company held its F8 developer conference last week, where Zuckerberg and other executives repeatedly addressed the need to embrace Facebook’s “broader responsibility.”
For more analysis, check out our feature post on the reorg:
