Steve Hatch to leave Meta
Steve Hatch, VP for Northern Europe at tech giant Meta, is leaving the company later this year.
In a LinkedIn post announcing his resignation, Hatch wrote that he was proud of the company, platforms, and teams at Meta, and that he is confident “Meta’s best days are ahead”, adding: “It’s been such an honour to represent the company, even in the hard moments, and I will be forever grateful for all the amazing people I have met along the way.”
He has been in his current role since October 2021, and prior to that worked at Facebook for more than seven years, first as director for UK & Ireland between 2014 and 2016, and then as VP for Northern Europe between 2016 and 2021.
Hatch, a former ad agency executive, had become one of Meta’s most well known spokespeople in the UK, arguably only less so than founder Mark Zuckerberg and chief lobbyist and former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.
He found himself in the national media spotlight in 2019 when he was questioned about the platforming of harmful content on Facebook-owned Instagram in an interview with BBC media editor Amol Rajan following the death of 14-year-old Molly Russell. In the interview, he offered an apology to the Russell family on behalf of the company.
In a separate interview that year, Hatch further defended Facebook from criticism over its decisions not to ban political advertising and accusations that the company wasn’t paying a fair share of tax in the UK.
Before joining Meta, he worked in leadership, planning and account management roles at MEC (now Wavemaker), PHD, DDB, Initiative and Riggs Advertising.
Hatch did not announce where he might land next, but wrote that he is looking forward to spending more time with his family in the spring.
He will be replaced by Meta’s current vice president for the Middle East, Africa and Turkey, Derya Matras.
She has worked for the company since 2015 and currently leads Meta’s operations in more than 70 countries.
The Media Leader understands Matras (pictured, left) will add Northern Europe on top of her current remit.
Matras previously worked in various positions at Dogan Media Group, McKinsey & Company and Oliver Wyman.
