Facebook Appoints Ex-Google Executive Briggs as Its First CMO

Gary Briggs

August 5th news, according to foreign media reports, Facebook has recently hired Gary Briggs, a former Google executive with extensive marketing experience in the tech industry, as its first Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) in the company's history.

Briggs served as Chief Marketing Officer at Motorola Mobility and will replace Eric Antonow, Facebook's Vice President of Product Marketing who has been responsible for marketing since 2010.

This title change also reflects an expansion of responsibilities for the role. Briggs' duties will include leading all brand and marketing efforts for Facebook across all platform members, including users, developers, marketers, and potential adopters of new products like Facebook Home. He will lead teams responsible for product marketing, platform marketing and events, communication design, brand marketing, and content strategy.

Prior to joining Motorola, Briggs was Vice President of Consumer Marketing at Google, where he was responsible for marketing search, commerce, Chrome, Google+, the charitable organization Google.org, and the entire Google brand. Before joining Google in 2010, he served as CEO of the gift card startup Plastic Jungle and spent six years at eBay, holding positions such as Vice President of Consumer Marketing, General Manager of eBay Canada, Global Head of Marketing for PayPal, and Chief Marketing Officer for eBay North America. He also spent six years early in his career at PepsiCo.

One of Briggs' most recent roles was advising Motorola Mobility CEO Dennis Woodside and newly appointed CMO Bill Morgan on branding and positioning strategies.

A Facebook spokesperson stated that Antonow will remain at the company temporarily to ensure a smooth transition before leaving in September to pursue a project related to his interest in the education sector. Facebook's organizational structure will also see changes. Previously, Antonow reported to Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, but Briggs will now report to Vice President of Product Chris Cox.