With Three Key Exits, Facebook’s Top Talent Departures Continue

The question on everyone’s minds after Facebook’s May IPO — How long till the brain drain starts?

Apparently, not that long. Ethan Beard, director of platform partnerships at Facebook, announced on Wednesday via Facebook that he will soon leave the company. Shortly thereafter, platform marketing director Katie Mitic also announced her departure from the company.

If that wasn’t enough, a third announcement came on Wednesday, as mobile platform marketing manager Jonathan Matus also announced his impending departure from the social networking giant.

Beard has been at Facebook for more than four years, and has been in charge of developing relationships with some of the top app makers that work with the company. Similarly, Mitic and Matus worked on the marketing side of platform, with Matus’ emphasis on mobile.

“I’ve had the pleasure of helping build an ecosystem of incredible developers from innovative startups and established companies,” Beard wrote on his Timeline. He names no specific successor to his role, but rattles off a list of other Facebook execs who will handle platform in the future, including Dan Rose, Justin Osofsky, Sean Ryan, Douglas Purdy, David Fisch and Chris Daniels.

As you’d expect, Mitic and Matus offered similar pleasant sendoffs in their own Facebook posts.

The announcements come as another in a string of high-profile departures, including CTO Bret Taylor’s June announcement that he would leave to form his own start-up, and, as TechCrunch reported, the departure of Open Graph product manager Carl Sjogreen in July. Top Facebook PR director Barry Schnitt left the company in May, taking a new role leading communications for Pinterest.

It’s worrisome for outsiders — particularly investors — who fear the loss of top Facebook talent after the company went public. If Facebook loses too many good minds to other, smaller companies, it could face what all growing companies dread — a stall in company innovation and proper leadership.

Beard has announced no specific plans, outside of eventually starting a “new venture” of his own in the future. Matus and Mitic are similarly vague, although Mitic announced plans to work on her own mobile startup.

Via: ATD

Prateek Panda

Prateek is the Founder of TheTechPanda. He's passionate about technology startups and entrepreneurship and enjoys speaking to new founders every day. Prateek has also been consistently regarded as one of the top marketing experts in the region.

Recent Posts

Can you really find parking in 5 minutes? Tech promises a breakthrough in Delhi-NCR

If you’ve ever circled endlessly in Delhi-NCR’s crowded streets, searching for a parking spot while…

3 days ago

Decoding the future of advertising: How blockchain is solving ad fraud, privacy & engagement challenges

Advertising has never been about anything other than connection — brands connecting with people through…

3 days ago

AI goes global: Best universities abroad offering world-class Artificial Intelligence degrees

As we navigate a world with algorithms predicting consumer behaviour, robotic-assisted surgical procedures, and intelligence…

1 week ago

Ness Digital Engineering launches ATONIS: An AI-powered engineering workbench to accelerate product innovation

Bridging intelligence and engineering maturity for a digital-first world Today’s engineering teams face mounting pressure…

2 weeks ago

War by algorithm: As AI & robotics enter our defense budgets what will our battlefields look like?

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics redefine the battlefield, how should we feel about it?…

2 weeks ago

Funding alert: Tech startups that raked in moolah this month

The Tech Panda takes a look at recent funding events in the tech ecosystem, seeking…

2 weeks ago