Who Is Adam Mosseri? Longtime Facebook Exec Named The Head Of Instagram

Instagram co-founders Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom abruptly announced their resignations from Facebook last week, six years after selling their photo-sharing app to Mark Zuckerberg’s social-media giant.

On Monday, Instagram announced their replacement: longtime Facebook exec Adam Mosseri.

A New York native, Mosseri ran a design consultancy and worked at the startup TokBox before hopping on the Facebook bandwagon in 2008, according to TechCrunch. The 35-year-old stayed on the Facebook side of things in one capacity or another before taking parental leave earlier this year. During his time at Facebook, he worked in the design and product management departments before being put in charge of News Feed operations.

Mosseri was in charge of News Feed during some of Facebook’s most contentious periods. He put his name on official company responses to the “fake news” problem when it blew up during and after the 2016 presidential election. The Russian interference debacle also occurred during his tenure as the head of News Feed.

When he returned from parental leave, his role changed within the Facebook corporate hierarchy. Mosseri switched from the company’s namesake social network to Instagram, becoming the photo-sharing app’s VP of product. According to TechCrunch, he performed well in that role and there was no notable tension between he and Systrom.

Instagram’s announcement said Mosseri will be working with a new executive team. He will be in charge of every aspect of Instagram in his new role. The blog post, written by Krieger and Systrom, expressed confidence in Mosseri’s ability to lead Instagram into the future.

“We remain excited for the future of Instagram in the coming years as we transition from being leaders at Instagram to being just two users in a billion,” the blog post said. “We’re confident that under Adam’s leadership, Instagram will evolve and improve and we look forward to the future of the product and community.”

When Krieger and Systrom left Facebook, reports indicated there was considerable tension between the duo and Zuckerberg. The two sides reportedly disagreed about where Instagram stood in Facebook’s product line.

Mosseri graduated from New York University in 2005 with a degree in information design. This is his sixth different position at Facebook, according to his LinkedIn page.