Facebook hires Google marketing veteran as first CMO
- 05 August, 2013 16:12
Facebook has secured Google’s former vice-president of consumer marketing, Gary Briggs, as its first global CMO.
As the marketing chief of the social networking behemoth, Briggs will lead all branding and marketing efforts and will oversee teams responsible for product marketing, platform marketing and events, communication design, brand marketing and content strategy.
Briggs is currently an advisor to Motorola Mobility, which was acquired by Google in 2011 for US$12.6bn but only finally closed in May last year. He was previously consumer marketing leader at Google responsible for search, commerce, Chrome, Google+, Google.org and the overall brand.
Prior to that, Briggs was the senior vice-president of marketing for Motorola in charge of regional and product marketing, consumer research, communications, ecommerce, advertising and the overall brand. His resume also includes CEO of gift card startup, Plastic Jungle, six years at eBay in various marketing and general management roles, a stint at Pepsi, as well as two years at IBM running worldwide brand strategy.
Briggs replaces former vice-president of product marketing, Eric Antanow, who has been overseeing Facebook’s marketing efforts since 2010 and will quit the company in September to pursue a personal project related to education, Facebook said in a statement.
Briggs is to report to Facebook’s vice-president of product, Chris Cox.
In a statement, Briggs said Facebook isn’t just a company, but a connection for more than a billion people to “the friends and things they care about most”.
“Telling the story of such an important and still very young brand is an incredible opportunity, and I cannot wait to get started,” he said.
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