Facebook’s Ed Couchman joins Snap

Snap has this week hired Facebook’s director of agency partnerships, Ed Couchman, as its new general manager for the UK.

The photo sharing and augmented reality platform – which has grown from five employees at the start of 2016 to over 140 today in the UK – has also promoted Claire Valoti to lead its international sales efforts as it continues to grow ad revenues outside of the US.

In her expanded role as VP of international sales, Valoti will be responsible for Snap’s “ambitious plans” to increase sales outside of the US which accounted for 23 percent of Snap’s global revenues in 2017 up from 12 percent the year before.

“I’m proud of what we’ve achieved over the past two years and excited by the big opportunities that lie ahead,” Valoti said.

“We have an incredibly skilled and hardworking team in the UK and Ed is the right person to take the business to the next level. He has a proven track record of building strong relationships within the media and advertising industry and his appointment underscores our continued commitment to our agency partners in the UK.”

Couchman added: “Snap has scaled incredibly quickly in the UK and I look forward to building on the success of Claire and the UK team. Snapchat’s efforts to remove friction from visual communication has resulted in a highly engaged, mobile-first audience.

“It will be great working with advertisers to figure out how it fits into their overall marketing and communications strategy and delivers the business results they need.”

Couchman starts in June.