As Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) continues to grapple with ongoing scandals concerning data transparency, the social media giant made a major announcement regarding its senior management staff.
Monday Facebook let the world know that they picked a top lawyer and communications figurehead to handle their public-relations issues. Jennifer Newstead, a well-known figure in Washington political circles who has worked with various presidential administrations, was picked by the social media giant to fill the role of General Counsel, succeeding Colin Stretch, who announced his departure back in 2018.
“Jennifer is a seasoned leader whose global perspective and experience will help us fulfill our mission,” said Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer. “We are also truly grateful to Colin for his dedicated leadership and wise counsel over the past nine years. He has played a crucial role in some of our most important projects and has created a strong foundation for Jennifer to build upon.”
At the same time, Facebook also separately announced they were appointing John Pinette, who previously advised Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Bill Gates in a communications capacity to work with Facebook as a new vice president of global communications. The two additions to Facebook help strengthen the company’s leadership, which besides CEO Mark Zuckerburg and COO Sheryl Sandberg, has weakened somewhat over the past several months.
Facebook has previously seen a number of senior leadership figures and department heads resign over the last year in what has become a worrying trend for the company, which previously had a relatively stable employment history for their senior employees. Back in March, Facebook’s Chief Product Officer Chris Cox and head of WhatsApp Chris Daniels left the company together, with the former having worked over 13 years for the company.
While the duo went on to say that the reason for their departure has to do with future visions for Facebook’s products, it’s not hard to see why many would speculate that Facebook’s ongoing scandals could play a role. Earlier in April, cybersecurity firm UpGuard found multiple cases where Facebook app data was left exposed on the public internet, where tens of thousands of profiles, passwords, and other sensitive information was compromised.
In response to the news, shares of Facebook increased around 1.8 percent on Monday. Over the past few months, stock prices for the social media giant have increased significantly, growing from $135.68 at the start of the year to its current price at $181.44 per share.
Facebook Company Profile
Facebook Inc is the world’s largest online social network, with more than 2 billion monthly active users. Users engage with each other in different ways, exchanging messages and sharing news events, photos, and videos.
On the video side, the firm is in the process of building a library of premium content and monetizing it via ads or subscription revenue. Facebook refers to this as Facebook Watch. The firm’s ecosystem consists mainly of the Facebook app, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and many features surrounding these products.
Users can access Facebook on mobile devices and desktop. Advertising revenue represents more than 90% of the firm’s total revenue, with 50% coming from the U.S. and Canada, and 25% from Europe. With gross margins above 80%, Facebook operates at a 40%-plus margin. – Warrior Trading News