Twenty years ago, Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook (Meta (META)) along with Eduardo Saverin, Andrew Mccollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes when they were all undergraduate students at Harvard University. The site started as a type of online directory for Harvard students and later expanded to other Ivy League schools and eventually most universities in the U.S. and Canada. By 2006, anyone with a valid email address and above 13 years old could access the site. Since then, Zuckerberg has turned the social platform into a full-fledged tech conglomerate.
As one of the most defining social platforms of the digital age, Facebook’s development into what we know today as Meta also represents the rapid changes in how people communicate online. Oftentimes the company outpaces lawmakers who try to set rules for the way its products affect users, from their impact on mental health to data gathering and privacy policies.
In 2021, Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook into Meta Platforms, marking a new chapter for the company that focuses on metaverse, A.I., and social platforms beyond Facebook. Today, Meta’s offerings include Instagram (META), Threads, WhatsApp, Reality Labs and more. Its leadership team is one of the most stable in the tech industry. All of Meta’s top executives have been with the company for over a decade. Many of them rose to the top through internal promotions and have held management and technical roles across departments.
Below are the 11 people overseeing Meta’s various social platforms and tech efforts:
Mark Zuckerberg, 39, cofounder, chairman and CEO
As one of the original founders, Zuckerberg owns about 13 percent of Meta stock worth more than $140 billion. Some of the major projects he has recently ushered in include Meta’s virtual reality initiatives through its Reality Labs unit, end-to-end encryption of messaging platforms and generative A.I. models.
Zuckerberg has sat before the U.S. Senate multiple times to testify on behalf of his company concerning issues around personal data gathering, hate speech and misinformation. He is expected to testify again this year over child safety issues on Meta’s Facebook and Instagram.
Javier Olivan, 47, chief operating officer
After working at Meta for 14 years in roles such as chief growth officer and vice president of central products, Olivan was promoted to chief operating officer in 2022, replacing prominent tech executive Sheryl Sandberg. In a Facebook post announcing his new role, he wrote, “I don’t anticipate my role will have the same public-facing aspect, given that we have other leaders at Meta who are already responsible for that work.”
Olivan’s history at Facebook includes leading the platform’s translation into non-English languages and expanding into international markets. He is also a founding member of the growth team at Facebook.
Chris Cox, 41, chief product officer
Cox joined Facebook in 2005 as a young software engineer. He built some of the platform’s early staple features like the News Feed and led the development of its mobile capabilities. His role after that was leading human resources until 2008 when he went back into the product side as vice president of product.
Cox began the role of chief product officer 2014. But he left the company in 2019 with Chris Daniels, the former head of Whatsapp, reportedly over clashes with Zuckerberg. He returned after just a year, saying Facebook is “the best place for me to roll up my sleeves and dig in to help.” As Meta’s chief product officer, Cox is currently focusing on Meta’s A.I. initiatives, most recently undertaking Meta’s Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) team, led by Yann LeCun and Joelle Pineau.
Tom Alison, 46, head of Facebook
Alison has been with Meta since 2010, leading the development of Facebook products including News Feed, profile and mobile and desktop experience. Alison was named head of Facebook in 2021. While Zuckerberg is the leader of Meta and all of its products, he is in charge of Facebook and all of its initiatives.
Alison has been pushing back against criticism that Facebook is “dying” or losing young people to competitors like TikTok. In a blog post in March 2023, Alison claimed Facebook had 2 billion daily active users, an all-time high, and laid out some of the company’s plans to keep users interested in the platform, such as incorporating A.I. and improving the platform’s messaging capabilities.
Adam Mosseri, 41, head of Instagram
Mosseri joined Meta in 2009 and has held several roles, including director of mobile design, vice president of product management and head of product for Instagram. Notably, Mosseri last year led the launch of Threads, a microblogging platform to compete with Elon Musk’s X.
As head of Instagram, Mosseri is a front-facing leader, constantly posting content on his own Instagram and Threads pages to update users on the latest happenings on the platforms. He faces growing pressure from regulators in the U.S. and Europe to address youth safety issues on Instagram. In 2021, Mosseri testified before a U.S. Senate panel to defend Instagram’s role in protecting children online.
Will Cathcart, 40, head of WhatsApp
Cathcart started at Meta in 2010 as vice president of product management, notably leading the ads initiative of Facebook’s News Feed product. Before Meta, he worked at Google as a product manager developing anti-spam technology.
Cathcart was named head of WhatsApp in 2019. Last November, he said he was considering introducing ads to the instant messaging service. The in-app ads would not show up within the inbox or the “messaging experience,” according to Cathcart, but they may show up in the platform’s other features.
Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth, 42, chief technology officer
Bosworth, who leads Meta’s Reality Labs unit, is the main engineer behind Meta’s ambitious metaverse initiative. He created the company’s AR/VR unit, which later became Reality Labs, in 2017.
Bosworth, a Harvard alumnus, joined Facebook in 2006 from Microsoft. He was also involved in the creation of News Feed and other early Facebook products. Before being named Meta’s CTO, Bosworth most recently served as vice president of ads and business platform, leading engineering, product, research, analytics and design.
Yann LeCun, 63, chief A.I. scientist
LeCun, a French A.I. scientist, joined Meta in 2013. He served as the company’s director of A.I. research before being named chief A.I. scientist. He is also a computer scientist professor at the New York University, mainly teaching at the NYU Center for Data Science and the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences.
LeCun received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris in 1987. He is one of the recipients of the 2018 Turing Award, along with Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, for “conceptual and engineering breakthroughs that have made deep neural networks a critical component of computing.”
Susan Li, 38, chief financial officer
Li joined was named Meta’s financial chief in 2022 at age 36, making her one of the industry’s youngest CFOs. Before that, she had worked in Meta’s finance functions for 14 years.
Li graduated from Stanford University in 2005 at just 19 years old with a double degree in economics and computer science. She went on to work as investment banking analyst at Morgan Stanley before joining Facebook in 2008.
Dave Wehner, chief strategy officer
Wehner was named Meta’s chief strategy officer in 2022, overseeing Meta’s corporate development. He joined the company in 2011 and had held roles including CFO and vice president of corporate finance and business planning before leading strategy.
Before Meta, Wehner served as the CFO of the video game company Zynga and a managing director for Allen & Company. In 2006, he was part of a team that created a patented system and method for operating hotel reward points.
Erin Egan, chief privacy officer of public policy
Egan has also been with Meta for over a decade. She previously served as the company’s head of U.S. public policy. Before joining Meta, Egan was a partner and co-chair of the law firm Covington & Burling’s global data practice where she worked on consumer protection matters.
Egan has been recognized by both Chambers USA and Legal 500 U.S. as a leading privacy and data security lawyer. At Meta, Egan collaborates with policymakers and experts on Meta’s efforts around data protection, data portability, advertising and A.I.
Correction: A previous version of this article inaccurately described Yann LeCun’s academic affiliation to the New York University.
