Longtime Facebook exec Adam Mosseri has officially been named the new head of Instagram, assuming the helm after the surprise departure of the Facebook-owned service’s co-founders, CEO Kevin Systrom and CTO Mike Krieger.
Mosseri, a 10-year veteran of Facebook, in May 2018 was named VP of product at Instagram. He previously oversaw the Facebook’s News Feed and Interfaces product management teams.
“We are thrilled to hand over the reins to a product leader with a strong design background and a focus on craft and simplicity — as well as a deep understanding of the importance of community,” Systrom and Krieger wrote in announcing Mosseri’s appointment. “These are the values and principles that have been essential to us at Instagram since the day we started, and we’re excited for Adam to carry them forward.”
Systrom and Krieger are officially leaving Instagram as of Oct. 1.
Last week, Systrom and Krieger — who founded Instagram in 2010, before Facebook bought it for $1 billion two years later — announced that they would be exiting the company. Systrom’s public farewell blog post on Sept. 24 hinted that the duo will be going on to start something else: “We’re now ready for our next chapter,” the execs wrote. Systrom and Krieger were widely reported to have been unhappy with recent changes Facebook was making to the Instagram app and business.
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In Mosseri’s role leading Instagram, he will oversee all functions of the business. That will include recruiting “a new executive team including a head of engineering, head of product and head of operations,” according to Systrom and Krieger’s post.
Instagram this summer topped 1 billion monthly active users and has 25 million businesses that maintain accounts on the service.
Prior to joining Facebook in 2008 as a product designer, Mosseri worked at TokBox as the company’s first designer. He began his career founding a design consultancy in 2003 with offices in New York and San Francisco that focused on graphic, interaction and exhibition design. Born and raised in New York, he now lives in San Francisco with his wife and two sons.