Caryn Marooney, Facebook’s communication head, is leaving the social giant after being with the company for eight years. Over the last year, Facebook has come under scrutiny from government, consumers and media alike. This includes the platform being used by Russians to manipulate the 2016 United States presidential election.
While working at Facebook, Marooney ran global communications for Facebook, and was one of the most closest PR figures to Mark Zuckerberg. She worked as an outside consultant for Facebook before being hired by the company.
Marooney may be leaving Facebook, but her departure will not be immediate. She will not leave from the company until a replacement is found for her position. This is a positive sign because her name has not been dragged through the mud in in all the recent messes Facebook has seen itself in.
Several other top Facebook executives have taken their leaves from the company as well. Elliot Schrage previously announced the he was leaving last year and was replaced by Nick Clegg, who was a deputy prime minister of the UK. In Clegg’s role, he oversees Marooney, in addition to policy head Joel Kaplan. Another executive, Rachel Whetstone, left the company for Netflix, and recently, Debbit Frost, the social giant’s longest-serving PR executive (lead global communications and public affairs) told her colleagues that she was leaving a few weeks ago.
“I am sad that Caryn has decided to leave the comms leader role — though I understand her wish to seek out new adventures after so many years of commitment and hard work at Facebook,” said Clegg in a statement. “Caryn inspires great loyalty in the communications team she has led so brilliantly, through good times and bad.”
In a memo to staff, Marooney said in part:
“What makes this so hard is that I have more faith in Facebook than ever. When I started working with Facebook in 2008 (I was still running OutCast), Facebook had 40m people using the service and was only available in the U.S. When I moved in-house 8 years ago, Facebook was just a website. So much has changed — we are now Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, AR/VR, Portal — with global data centers and amazing technology and engineering. But so much has stayed the same — there is so much good happening on Facebook and the entire family of apps every day. And for our challenges — we have plans in place and the right people working on them. I can absolutely say that we’re more determined than ever.”
