Facebook is the last of the American “Big Five” tech companies – the others being Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple – to move toward blockchain and Reuters reports that the management shakeup is the biggest in Facebook 14-year history. Former IBM Watson engineer Jerome Pesenti, who now heads Facebook’s artificial intelligence group, will also report to Schroepfer.
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Facebook’s team focused on privacy is new inside that second division – but it’s not hard to see why the company is building more focus on privacy and policy.
David Marcus speaks during the F8 Facebook Developers Conference.
Social media giant Facebook is launching a blockchain team to explore possible applications for the technology.
As the dust settles from Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica crisis, the company is putting in motion a reorg that impacts its product and engineering teams and is reassigning a number of current executives to new leadership roles.
Marcus has some background in blockchain, having been appointed to the Board of Directors at Coinbase, a marketplace for buying and selling cryptocurrencies, in December 2017. Cox was previously in charge of Facbook’s core app. The emerging technologies division will be led by Mike Schroepfer, the chief technology officer. Some of the long term Facebook executives have been given new responsibilities, including an effort to tackle the challenges from blockchain technology. That group will be run by Cox, who was in charge of the core Facebook app but now will oversee Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. Stan Chudnovsky, who leads product at Messenger, will take the previous role of Marcus.
In a jolt to Facebook, WhatsApp co-founder and CEO Jan Koum in April made a decision to move on amid reports that he had a difference of opinion with parent company Facebook over data privacy, encryption and other issues.
Javier Olivan, Facebook’s VP of growth who will report into Mark, will be in command of the central product services division – this includes growth, product management, integrity, analytics, etc. Mark Rabkin, Naomi Gleit, and Alex Schultz will be reporting to him.
WhatsApp has been given a relatively free hand since 2014, when Facebook bought it for US$22 billion (S$29 billion), but in recent months, its two co-founders have announced their resignations, opening the door to closer integration.
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