Here are the top power moves of the week: Facebook, Tesla and Y Combinator
- Keeping an eye on major hires and promotions is one of the best ways to understand a company's strategy.
- The Org tracks executive changes at companies big and small.
- Here's a snapshot of the most important executive moves of the week across media, tech and finance.
Every week we bring you an overview of the most important executive changes from the past week. Yesterday, Facebook announced another leadership reshuffle as the company's Chief Product Officer, Chris Cox, is stepping down. Read more about this and other notable executive changes:
Facebook's Chief Product Officer is leaving the company
Chris Cox, Facebook's Chief Product Officer and key lieutenant of Mark Zuckerberg, is leaving the company amid a leadership reshuffle. The change comes following an announcement last week that the social media giant is shifting to a privacy-focused vision for social networking. The role of chief product officer will not be filled by anyone. Instead, the heads of Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram will now report directly to Zuckerberg, which brings product decision power even closer to the CEO.
Tesla promotes names new finance heads amid executive turnover
Vaibhav Taneja and Zachary Kirkhorn have been appointed Chief Accounting Officer and Chief Financial Officer respectively according to a securities filing by Tesla. Kirkhorn's new role was mentioned during the company's earnings call in January when Elon Musk announced that Deepak Ahuja would be retiring as CFO. Taneja will report to Kirkhorn in their new roles. The moves come as Tesla looks to rebuild its finance team after a wave of executive departures.
Sam Altman is stepping down as president of Y Combinator
Y Combinator announced that Sam Altman would be stepping down as president of the Silicon Valley based prominent start-up accelerator. Altman will transition to a role as Chairman and shift his operational responsibilities to other YC Partners. According to a blog post, Altman intends to spend more time on OpenAI, a non-profit artificial intelligence research organization, that he co-founded with Elon Musk in 2015. YC remains one of the most influential tech incubators in Silicon Valley, having graduated companies like Airbnb, Dropbox, Twitch, and Stripe from its program.
John Standley to step down as CEO of Rite Aid
Rite Aid announced that CEO John Standley would step down and it would cut 400 corporate jobs. In the last couple years, Rite Aid saw a merger with grocery chain Albertsons fall through and the drugstore recently sold almost 2,000 stores to its long-time rival Walgreens. As part of the leadership transition, John Standley will step down as chief executive officer. Standley will remain CEO until the appointment of his successor.
Walmart executive joins Coupang as General Counsel
Korean commerce company Coupang has announced that Jay Jorgensen will join the company as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer. Jorgensen most recently served as the Global Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer of Walmart where he created the company's first global program to manage regulatory compliance for the entire business. Coupang is largely considered the Amazon of South Korea.
Christian Wylonis is the co-founder and CEO of The Org, a professional community where you can explore any organizational chart in the world.