Facebook’s Big Reorg Moves Marcus To Blockchain

Facebook just completed the biggest executive shakeup in its 15-year history, with several key players changing roles at the company.

According to Recode, the changes, which were announced internally to employees on Tuesday (May 8), include David Marcus, the head of Facebook’s standalone messaging app, Messenger, leaving that role to run a new team exploring blockchain technology. Stan Chudnovsky, the head of product at Messenger, is taking over the Messenger app and team.

In addition, Chris Cox, who was in charge of the main Facebook app, will now head up a new “family of apps,” overseeing Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.

Chris Daniels, the VP of Facebook’s Internet.org group, is taking over WhatsApp following the departure of CEO Jan Koum, who left the company after disagreements over the messaging service’s strategy, as well as Facebook’s attempts to use its personal data and weaken its encryption.

Will Cathcart is also changing roles, taking over all of product for Facebook’s core app. He’s been at Facebook since 2008, and was responsible for the site’s profiles team, which includes the group working on Facebook’s new dating service.

And all of the other product and engineering functions, such as ads, security and growth, will be led by Javier Olivan, who has been with the company for over a decade. Olivan has run Facebook’s growth team for years and is credited with helping the social media giant achieve its massive scale.

Instagram and Facebook are also trading execs, with Adam Mosseri, the Facebook product executive who runs News Feed, going to Instagram to become the company’s new VP of product. In return, Kevin Weil is leaving Instagram and moving to Facebook’s new blockchain team.

The changes come as Facebook has been under fire for recent data scandals, including one where the data of 87 million of its users may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica. As a result, the company faced pressure from regulators, privacy advocates and shareholders, and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced two days of grilling on Capitol Hill.