Facebook named Alex Schultz, previously VP of product growth, analytics and internationalization, its new chief marketing officer.
Schultz, a nearly 13-year veteran of Facebook, takes over the CMO spot from Antonio Lucio, the former HP exec who stepped down last month after two years at the company.
Schultz, in addition to serving as chief marketing officer, will continue to oversee product growth, analytics and internalization. He steps into the post as Facebook has continued to grow during the COVID-19 pandemic — but faces brand-reputation battles on several fronts, including over accusations that it isn’t doing enough to combat misinformation and hate speech.
In a post Tuesday on Facebook, Schultz said he hopes to “build on” the work of Lucio “and bring my experience in segmentation, targeting, and measurement to bear as we work to reach people more meaningfully through our product.”
According to Schultz, he has spent “most of my energy for the last 4 years” on Facebook’s safety work including producing its community standards enforcement report. “I believe social media is a force for good in the world and am proud of the work we’re doing to make it even more so,” he wrote in his post.
His appointment as CMO comes just weeks before the pivotal 2020 U.S. election. On Tuesday, the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden blasted Facebook as “the nation’s foremost propagator of disinformation about the voting process” in a letter sent to CEO Mark Zuckerberg over the company’s refusal to remove voting misinformation posted by President Trump. The letter was first reported by Axios.
Beginning this summer, Facebook has been the target of the Stop Hate for Profit campaign, launched by groups including the NAACP, Common Sense Media and the Anti-Defamation League. The initiative was joined by hundreds of companies who pledged to suspend advertising on Facebook-owned platforms temporarily, with the goal of spurring the social media giant to more aggressively police for and block hate speech and misinformation.
Schultz, before he joined Facebook in 2007, worked for eBay in the U.K. as a marketing manager. In his post Tuesday, he wrote, “As a last note, I’m proud to be openly gay, something I couldn’t say when I joined the industry, came to America or moved to Facebook.” He added, “Facebook is the first place I have felt truly safe to be gay and be open about it.”