Exclusive: Meta chief business officer Marne Levine to exit
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Longtime Meta executive Marne Levine will exit the company later this year, she told Axios, ending her 13-year tenure with the company.
Why it matters: Levine currently oversees all advertising and business partnerships for Meta. Two longtime Meta executives, Nicola Mendelsohn and Justin Osofsky, will take over her responsibilities.
Catch up quick: Levine joined Meta, then Facebook, in 2010 as the company's first ever vice president of global policy. She came to Meta from the Obama Administration and is a longtime confidant of former Meta chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg.
- Levine is credited with helping develop Meta's strategy and positioning around key policy issues, such as data privacy, security, and content moderation. When she joined, the company had only five global policy employees, compared to hundreds today.
- She also served as the chief operating officer of Instagram for several years, helping to grow the app's advertising business globally. Under her leadership, Instagram grew to over 1 billion monthly active users.
- Levine was named chief business officer in 2021, replacing the company's outgoing chief revenue officer David Fischer. In that role, she oversaw a newly combined business unit that includes all of Facebook's advertising businesses and global partnerships.
Driving the news: The decision to leave was Levine's, she acknowledged in an interview with Axios.
- She says she plans to spend more time with her family and to recharge before pursuing her next professional chapter.
- Levine will officially step down from her role on February 21, but will remain with the company as an employee until she leaves this summer to help with the transition.
- "The reason why this time feels right for me is that business results have improved," Levine said. "They are moving in the right direction and we have a really solid strategy in place and we have really strong leaders in place, like Nicola and Justin," she said referring to Nicola Mendelsohn, Meta's VP, global business group, and Justin Osofsky, Instagram's chief operating officer of and VP, content & global operations of Meta.
Details: Levine's responsibilities will be split between Mendelsohn and Osofsky, whose new titles will be Head of Global Business Group and Head of Online Sales, Operations and Partnerships, respectively.
- Mendelsohn's remit now includes all global partnerships and engineering for Meta. She will continue to lead Meta's Global Business Group, which manages the company's relationship with large advertisers, like Fortune 500 companies.
- The new structure, Mendelsohn said, creates "a single external-facing business partnership organization."
- Osofsky's role will expand to include sales and operations focused on growing small and medium-sized businesses. He will continue to oversee Meta's content partnerships team across Facebook and Instagram.
The big picture: Levine's departure comes just a few months after sweeping leadership changes announced at Meta last year.
- Sandberg's departure last September saw the promotion of Javier Olivan as chief operating officer. Levine reported to Olivan.
What to watch: The new structure brings business and product teams even closer together, Osofsky said.
- With the changes, "we're taking out online sales teams serving small businesses, and building ever deeper ties with our product leaders," he added, including those that focus on monetization and analytics.
