Elliot Schrage, a longtime Facebook executive who heads the social media giant’s communications and public policy outreach, will soon be stepping down from his position.
Schrage, who joined Facebook in May 2008 after holding a global communications and public affairs position at Google, announced in a Facebook post on Thursday that he had “decided it’s time to start a new chapter,” after discussing the move with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg.
“Leading policy and communications for hyper growth technology companies is a joy — but it’s also intense and leaves little room for much else. Mark, Sheryl and I have been discussing this for a while,” Schrage said. “I’ll lead the search to identify someone new to oversee our communications and policy teams. We expect to find someone with the same passion, integrity, determination and energy that our teams bring to Facebook every day.”
The departure was initially confirmed by Recode.
Schrage also noted in the post that he would be staying with Facebook for the time being in order to help manage the transition and is open to being tapped as an adviser to future projects.
In his role as vice president, Schrage oversaw responses to several tumultuous periods at Facebook, including the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which it was revealed that around 50 million Facebook users had their data collected without consent in 2015.