A longtime Snapchat exec who helped build its ad business has left the company
Veteran Snap Inc. employee and former growth director Brian Ames has left the company.
After three years at Snap, Ames (formerly named Theisen) left in May to be the president of advertising at mobile game studio King, according to his LinkedIn profile and as first noted by The Information.
"We are very excited for Brian and wish him all the best," a Snap spokesperson told Business Insider on Wednesday.
Ames' exit comes two months after Snap's IPO and as the maker of the popular Snapchat app faces increasing pressure from rival Facebook.
Snap's shares lost roughly a quarter of their value earlier this month, when the company reported disappointing revenue and user growth. The shares have since regained some of those losses.
Ames' departure also comes as Snap faces a lawsuit by a former Snap employee who claims the company lied to investors about key growth metrics. Ames is named as a defendant in the suit. Snap has said the suit is without merit.
Ames served in several senior management positions at Snap over the years and was an influential voice on growth and scaling the company's fledgling ad business. He became director of revenue product marketing in May 2016 after former product designer Jacob Andreou replaced him as director of growth. Prior to that, he led business operations.
"King's portfolio of games offers one of the largest untapped opportunities for connecting marketers and consumers," Ames said in a statement. "I'm excited to join the King team to lead the beginning stages of monetizing one of the largest addressable audiences in the world."