Senior Facebook Exec To Leave

Owen Van Natta, Facebook’s chief revenue officer, will be leaving the company next month after a short tenure.

Van Natta was instrumental in initiating two major deals with Microsoft, setting up an exclusive three-year advertising agreement and negotiating the software giant’s $240 million (£124 million) investment in the firm back in October.

Van Natta told the Wall Street Journal’s AllThingsD blog that he had always wanted a chief executive job, something he would be unlikely to secure at Facebook because the position is held by the site’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg.

He was also apparently demoted last year when his job title was changed from chief operating officer to chief revenue officer and vice-president of operations.

Van Natta told AllThingsD he had done all he could at Facebook and wanted to move to a consumer web company.

Before joining Facebook in October 2005, he spent seven years at Amazon as vice-president of worldwide business development.

In a statement, Facebook said Van Natta would be leaving to “pursue other opportunities”.

Facebook acknowledged he had been “instrumental in building out the core infrastructure of the company, and to building Facebook’s Microsoft relationship.

“He also recruited some great executives in sales and business development and has been an influential part of the management team.”

Van Natta’s role will not be directly filled, with Facebook’s vice-president of strategy and operations, Matt Cohler, becoming vice-president of product management.

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