As Facebook transitions its corporate branding and organizes around a “metaverse” future, a number of high-profile execs have been leaving the company.
Last week, former Messenger boss and current crypto czar David Marcus announced he was leaving at the end of the year. Today, Meta’s current chief of the Messenger division Stan Chudnovsky announced in a Facebook post he will be leaving Meta “at some point in Q2 of next year.”
Chudnovsky joined Facebook in early 2015 as head of product for Messenger, later becoming chief of the division in May 2018, taking over from Marcus. As head of Messenger, Chudnovsky helped oversee major updates, including Messenger’s integration with Instagram Direct, the launch of Messenger Kids, and the arrival of Messenger Rooms. His departure comes at a time when Messenger has just celebrated its 10-year anniversary and announced a new product direction which will see it becoming more of Facebook’s “connective” tissue for interactive experiences.
Before joining Facebook, Chudnovsky had co-founded the venture firm NFX and had served as PayPal’s VP of Growth after the company acquired his software startup IronPearl in 2013.
“I’ve been working nonstop since I was 16, with about two-week breaks between my projects — always either starting companies, starting a venture fund (NFX) or running companies, merging companies, investing in companies or working at companies,” Chudnovsky said in his post announcing his plans. “I have no plans to retire, but I am looking forward to taking a good, many months long break.”
After Chudnovsky leaves his role, his colleague Loredana Crisan will help take over. Crisan joined the Messenger team in 2016 and previously led design at Indiegogo. She will handle Chudnovsky’s responsibilities on Messenger, Instagram Direct, and Messenger Kids. Meanwhile, another exec, Maher Saba, will handle areas like audio calling, video calling and the Facebook’s Rooms group calling product.
The exec is the latest in a string of departures which have also included head of Facebook app Fidji Simo, now Instacart CEO; former head of Facebook Marketplace, Deborah Liu, now CEO of Ancestry.com; former Chief Revenue Officer David Fischer; Novi division co-founder Kevin Weil; VR exec Hugo Barra; 10-year veteran and former ads chief Carolyn Everson (who reportedly grew tired of running interference for Facebook during its controversies); 13-year veteran and CTO Mike Schroepfer; and recently, both David Marcus and head of Facebook Workplace, Julien Codorniou.
Facebook’s top crypto executive David Marcus is leaving the company
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