Instagram has found a new leader.
Facebook has installed veteran executive Adam Mosseri to run the fast-growing social networking app as head of Instagram. His appointment comes a week after co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger announced that they plan to step down from the company six years after they sold it to Facebook.
Mosseri has been with Facebook since 2008, working his way up to be the vice president of its News Feed product. He moved from Facebook to lead product for Instagram earlier this year and was considered the likely candidate for the top job at the company after the departure of the co-founders. While Systrom served as CEO of Instagram, Mosseri’s titled will be head of Instagram — a sign that Facebook could try to further integrate the company into its operations.
“Since we announced our departure, many people have asked us what we hope for the future of Instagram,” Systrom and Krieger said Monday in a blog post. “To us, the most important thing is keeping our community — all of you — front and center in all that Instagram does. We believe that Adam will hold true to these values and that Instagram will continue to thrive.”
Mosseri will be tasked with building out a new executive team for Instagram, which recently lost COO Marne Levine to Facebook, where she is serving as vp global partnerships and business development. Among the open positions are head of engineering, head of product and head of operations.
In his new role, Mosseri will also oversee a company that has seen explosive growth since Facebook paid $1 billion for the company in 2012. What began as a photo-sharing app has become a full-fledged social network with short clips, stories and a longform video product called IGTV. Instagram currently has 800 million monthly active users, and its stories product is used by 400 million users every day.
