Sep 22, 2023 - Economy

Scoop: Snap promotes Patrick Harris to president of Americas role as Rob Wilk exits

Photo Credit: Nataliya Lalor

Snap Inc. has promoted former Meta executive Patrick Harris to the position of President of Americas, overseeing sales and key business operations, according to an internal note sent Friday to staff and obtained by Axios.

Why it matters: Harris replaces Rob Wilk, who was hired for the role in March.

  • Wilk, who formerly served as Microsoft's head of advertising, was the first person to ever hold the President of Americas position in Snap.

Details: In addition to his new role, Harris will continue to lead the company's partnerships team for Snap, according to the note sent by Snap chief operating officer Jerry Hunter.

  • Harris was hired earlier this year as vice president of partnerships.
  • He previously served as vice president of global channels at Meta, where he worked for more than a decade.
  • "In his time at Snap, Patrick has proven to be a highly valuable leader with a keen strategic sense," Hunter wrote.

The big picture: The shakeup comes amid a broader leadership overhaul at the company over the past year. Many of Snap's longtime executives who had been with the firm since its earliest years exited and new, seasoned leaders from competitive platforms were brought in.

  • The company's longtime partnerships lead Ben Schwerin and its longtime growth and product lead Jacob Andreou left both left earlier this year. Ad executives Jeremi Gorman and Peter Naylor departed for Netflix last year.
  • Snap in June hired Eric Young from Google as its new head of engineering. It brought on Ronan Harris from Google to lead its Europe, Middle East and Africa business and Ajit Mohan from Meta to lead its Asia Pacific business last year.

What they're saying: "Patrick was one of my most outstanding leaders at Meta," said Carolyn Everson, former president of Instacart and vice president of the global business group at Meta, then Facebook, Everson noted that he is "well versed on the technology side and can be an excellent translator between the market needs and what product and engineering needs to build."

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